Reasons for being a little less cheerful 2022

 After trying to be positive at the end of 2021, 2022 is not turning out quite as I hoped.

Pandemic wise it has not got easier. We continue to face increasing COVID infection rates that are impacting on the work in hospitals, care homes, hospices, and the wider community. There’s the possibility of Tb increasing too as a missed diagnosis. Alongside this, the financial squeeze on care workers is going to impact on retention and recruitment. Even worse is the potential taxing of NHS workers by making them pay for their LFTs, after the government missed the group out when ending the access to free LFTs.

At a time when many are disgruntled, at least, this feels a final ignominy. I happen to occupy a relatively well paid nursing role, and I will find it difficult to pay for the tests. NHS employers say they are worried about this situation yet have been slow to show leadership in sorting this out.

In the meantime we are going through a period of war, that in the context of our global family is an experience relatively few will recall, and which is heartbreakingly thrust into view across all media. This attack on Ukraine and it’s people is a manufactured excuse for the oppression of these people, whose right to self determination is under threat just as was seen in the two world wars. Our Human Rights, developed in the aftermath of the Second World War and enshrined in the UK as the Human Rights Act, are under siege by the current government who want to encroach on them. We need to remain vigilant and be clear voices for those who need protection from abuses. 

As I write today we are asked to celebrate Mother’s Day, and so we should. Motherhood encompasses many models, sadly not all them positive as recent cases have shown. Without dwelling on those examples I’d rather be thinking of all the work mums do, and hoping that we can be much more appreciative of that each day of the year. That is a positive reminder that there still much to be thankful for and enjoy.