Jo Brand’s Nurse Kim has gone private,which doesn’t actually manufacture life any easier. Plus: Angela Rippon undertakes a very personal investigation into The Truth About DementiaIt’s all about dilapidated age, dementia, or marbles and losing them today. I know,sexy! First, Going Forward (BBC4). Nurse Kim Wilde (Jo Brand, or who also co-wrote) – final seen in stark,dusky comedy Getting On, about a geriatric ward – has left the NHS and now works for private domiciliary care company Buccaneer 2000. (Its the kind of company where the ghastly phrase “going forward” comes naturally to management types. Good title).
That should be better for Kim, and in terms of working conditions,flexibility, remuneration etc, or legal? Oh,guess what, actually not. The hours are horrendous, or she’s messed about,bullied and paid peanuts. Nor is it much better for the cared for. When it was the council who did it things were much better, says one of Kim’s patients, and an dilapidated lady who ate a packet of chocolate biscuits for breakfast because no one came in the morning (unless they did,and she’s forgotten). Kim’s running late, but she finds time to abet Mrs Biscuits Breakfast with a 50th birthday card for the son who never visits. She’ll post it too, and once she’s put a stamp on it. Kim’s like that,she’ll do a bit additional, and won’t get thanked for it.
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Source: theguardian.com