Not the blog I was going to write, but the best laid plans and all that…

In last week’s blog I reflected upon the catastrophic earthquake in Turkey and Syria. Alongside the war in the Ukraine, pictures and stories from the area have continued to fill our daily news programmes. Often these stories have been about individual triumphs. There have been many extraordinary stories, and some are captured here. Whilst some international rescue teams are beginning to leave the earthquake area, individuals are still defying the odds and being found alive. Last Thursday, 10 days after the earthquake a 17 year old girl was pulled from a flattened building, on Friday a 77 year old grandmother was rescued alive. Sadly, these stories of survival against the odds are becoming rarer.

The scale of what has happened almost defies understanding. As I write this blog over 46,000 people have died. Just last week I noted the number was 28,000. Millions of folk are now completely dependent upon aid in order to live. The area impacted by the earthquake is as big as Britain. The ground torn apart, in some places, by as much as 23 feet. Many buildings were flattened by the earthquake, and it’s estimated a further 85,000 buildings will need to be demolished because they are deemed unsafe. Nearly 1,600 children are being cared for by authorities in Turkey, including some 250 children who have yet to be identified.  

For many of us, there is little we can do practically to help other than perhaps make a donation. That said, every donation, however small, will make a difference. I believe that we should all try and keep those families and communities in our thoughts and prayers; it is going to take a long time for these people’s lives to return to any sense of normality.

In a weekly blog it can be difficult not to focus on events such as these. But there are other related stories to be told. Last week, for example I spent an interesting morning with colleagues from our estates and facilities departments. My eyes were well and truly opened. I started by visiting our Electrical and Biomedical Engineering department. Tucked away in a little building this fantastic team look after the hospital’s some 26,000 pieces of medical equipment. It was impressive work they were doing. I was pleased to see that half the engineers were female. The day before my visit the department had received a delivery of equipment to replace existing equipment across the Trust.

My MBA learning kicked in and I was able to ask the intelligent sounding question ‘so this is equipment that has reached its predicted depreciation value, although it still has some useful life left?’ – the answer was yes, and of course the new equipment was an updated and more technically effective version than the original. ‘What happens to the replaced equipment?’ I asked – apparently it is usually sold off through a specialist auctioneer, but in times of crisis such at the Turkey/Syria earthquake, the Trust looks for ways to make the equipment available to those providing relief and medical care. I have a note to see whether we have been able to do so.

I was able to meet colleagues from across the more traditional professions and trades associated with estates and facilities departments, such as catering colleagues (we have the only two award-winning top NHS Chefs in England working in the Trust), porters, domestics, electricians and so on. I also met some new folk, working in areas completely unknown to me.

One area was logistics. Knowing how much of everything we required or consumed is a critical insight needed in an ever increasingly cost conscious world. Likewise, I was fascinated by the conversations with my colleagues working in compliance. Our need to keep on top of health and safety regulations, building regulations and the like was equally compelling and critical. Much of our building stock (and that of many NHS buildings) is now very old and built during periods where the current regulations were not in force. Ensuring that wherever possible we keep our patient environment safe is an ongoing process of checking and restitution. 

It seems that the reasons there was so much damage to buildings in Turkey was that many were constructed ignoring the prevailing building regulations. I don’t know why this was the case, but strongly suspect it would be to save money and maximise profit. Whilst none of the NHS building stock would fail because of such reasons, the NHS backlog maintenance problem is huge and growing every day. Whilst this is a problem many NHS Trusts have to deal with, those with roofs made from reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (RAAC) are in the frontline of the risk of catastrophic building failure. NHS England has already set aside some £685 million up to 2025 to try and resolve these problems. The cost is likely to be much higher as some affected hospitals will need to be replaced with new hospitals altogether. If you can bear to read the detail, and it is pretty depressing and worrying, have a look here.

However, none of the above was what I intended to explore when I opened my computer to write this blog. I wanted to post a more light-hearted blog about chickens. Admittedly my interest was sparked by the sad and puzzling death of one Japer Kraus. He died from a heart attack after one of his Brahma chickens attacked him and caught his leg with one of its spurs, causing catastrophic blood loss and death. Just to put such tragic things into a little perspective, worldwide, 136 million chickens are killed by humans each day. I’m a long time vegetarian so don’t look my way.

It wasn’t to be. Alas the best laid plans (or in this case eggs) don’t always come to fruition. I have kept chickens for over 50 years and have never been attacked once. Gregory Peck, our current cockerel knows that in the hen house, I’m head of the pecking order and that works well. We have a respectful relationship. However, I know that in our house, J is head of the pecking order which works equally well.