Life in the Scottish Borders?

There was some great news for health care in the Scottish Borders this week via BBC News. In order to improve services, NHS Borders have decided to reduce beds at Borders General Hospital. Even better news is that they didn’t fritter away taxpayers money on one of those wasteful needs assessment studies. No, to hell with science and logic, apparently it just seemed like a good idea at the time. The number of beds for the elderly is to be cut from 120 to 92. Ralph Roberts, Director of Integrated Care, insisted this would not mean a reduction in the quality of service received by patients. Ralph justified the decision by revealing that staff didn’t want to go back to the way they were working prior to this but somewhat surprisingly preferred the 25% reduction in their workload. How queer.

Meanwhile the Southern Reporter was reminding us about the impending closure of GP surgeries in Yetholm and Morebattle. “Kelso doctors want to pull out because the Morebattle surgery is not up to scratch and there have been complaints about the Yetholm service”. Well, let that be a warning to us all, complain about a local service and it may be taken away altogether. At this point some readers may like to reminisce about the old days when we used to have NHS dentists in the Borders. Even older readers may remember the good old days when some medical services were provided virtually on our doorsteps.

Ralph’s improvements at BGH sound very similar to the great improvements we have recently seen in out of hours care. Back in the bad old days if we were taken ill during the night we would simply phone our family doctor and if needed, the grumpy old GP would be in our house in a few minutes. Nowadays we have NHS24, where we get to call a national call centre (it’s surely only a matter of time before these are based in Calcutta). After interrogation we are given an estimated time for a call back, which is often under 4 hours at which point we may get access to a real doctor. Great!

It must be a scary time for old folks living up the Bowmont and Kale valleys. They must be dreading this winter, with no access to a GP and the prospect of navigating the stormy waters of the dreaded NHS24 for out of hours care. Unlike Mr Roberts, these people are only too aware of the annual winter bed crisis and are perhaps wondering what sort of trolley or chair will be provided for their inpatient care when they eventually reach hospital this winter.

Perhaps NHS Borders will come up with some imaginative scheme to save the day…

If you’re looking for a good blog from the Scottish Borders then there is nothing I have found yet to beat Border Birds. No… it’s not a local version of Facebook featuring tattooed babes falling about drunk in Diesel’s. All the action takes place in a rural garden… “hmmm… wow…. big deal” you are probably thinking. But this is a fascinating wee diary of all the birds that visit the wumman’s garden. What makes Border Birds really stand out is the stunning photography. From the seldom seen nuthatch to the common auld sparrow, the pictures are marvellous. This site really is a pleasure to behold and it’s amazing to think that all these birds are on our doorstep and if we took a little time and put out some food we could probably see them for real. So Border Birds gets my blog of the month award!

You are perhaps wondering why I am being so nice. Well of course there is another side to Border Birds, it couldn’t be that perfect. There is one very weird inclusion on the page… the Greenlaw webcam! Why? Why on earth would anyone want to look at frozen images of Greenlaw High Street? I’ve had a look, occasionally a van passes through but much of the time the street is deserted. But perhaps I am being insensitive and forgetting those poor folks living in the remote parts of Berwickshire for whom a glimpse of this bustling metropolis must be a rare treat. Well hang on to your smocks guys, here’s a screen-shot I grabbed earlier…

I came across (well not literally) a recent post by Richard Havers about the plans to combine Border TV with Tyne Tees TV. What a disaster, eh? We will no longer be hearing the Carlisle and Lake District news from Cumbria TV. Oh dear, how I shall miss those cardboard presenters in their 1970s haircuts and Victorian clothes telling us how wonderful Sellafield (who I’m sure sponsor the station) is and how grateful we are for all the jobs it creates in “our region”. The station is completely devoid of any real journalism, forever doffing it’s cap to all and sundry, really just a crawlybum advertiser for local businesses. The only good bit is the touching story at the end of the news, usually about a talented sheep or about 5 year old Timmy who can play chopsticks on the piano “watch out Elton John” quips the cardboard newsreader in a cheesy patronising style only ever seen nowadays in the Viz… but this guy is serious!

As Richard points out, it would surely make more sense for us folks north of the border to served by news from STV. Particularly so now that we have a Scottish parliament.

On this page I read a viewer’s comment… “A black day for Cumbria and South West Scotland this will be when our news is moved to Gateshead. I often wonder what will happen to the Isle of Man in all this as they are very remote from Tyne Tees“. My God, that just shows how often there is an item featuring the Scottish Borders. Even the other Border TV viewers don’t realise we exist. It’s all went downhill since the late great Eric Wallace retired in 1998, God Bless him. That’s it decided for me. Get rid of it now.

In fact forget about a merger, replace Border TV with live coverage from the towns’ CCTV cameras. The whole region would be glued to their sets on weekend nights playing “spot the drunk” and seeing the real news unfold before their very eyes. The advertisers would make a fortune.

Oh… and while your at it, try replacing Radio Boredom with a real local radio station with real local characters and accents. Hmmm… time for my pills before I explode.

To most people, the Scottish Borders is a beautiful landscape of rolling hills and gentle rivers, steeped in legend and history…

However, amidst this apparent idyllic haven of peace and tranquility, nothing can stop the onward march of “progress”. Like every other part of Britain, the Borders has no immunity to binge drinking yobs. Nowhere more so than Hawick. Once a peaceful town of thriving hosiery mills and sobre residents, it now lives up to it’s label of “Dirty Hawick” where drunken louts roam the streets, vandalising the town and indulging in alcohol induced vomitting….