Growing Old Gracefully
ALAS, for many aged graceful elderly, this will not be the case.
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When this wonderful period in our lives arrive one of two things will happen.
Our offspring will either pop us happily into an aged care facility because their lives are kind of too busy to take care of us or they will make a nice cosy room for us to enable us to annoy them forever.
Then there will be couples that have worked all their lives and choose to stay put and not integrate themselves into their children’s lives, so they will get penalised just for thinking this was an option.
If fortunate, one partner might still have a vocation and earn money, then the government will ensure that the other will get less pension, albeit that said person has worked all their lives and paid tax.
And worse to come, if they both worked but cannot anymore.
Well they must stand by to receive a pittance by the country they nourished with their hearts and bodies, but attempt to grow old gracefully.
Felicity O'Neill, Westbury.
Mindset
RON Baine's (The Examiner, November 15) ref to David's “damaging sling shot” resonates with Innocent IIs “lethal crossbow”, the use of which that Pope condemned as “hateful to God” (when used against Christians, but not so when used against Muslims and other infidels).
That mindset appears to have changed here in Australia very little over the intervening 900 years.
And now, we have in London a classic manifestation of just such a barbaric use of the crossbow against a defenceless young Muslim mother.
Ken Partridge, West Launceston.
What a cheek
WHAT an absolute joke Pamela Anderson (The Examiner, November 19) should never ever accuse anyone, let alone our Prime Minister of Australia, of being smutty.
It is a word she should carefully avoid, as her life has not been smut free.
For example, her defence of Wikileaks Julian Assange, who is a self-confessed hacker.
Accused of leaking sensitive information pertaining to the national security of some countries.
Guilty or not the charges are serious, so Australia should keep out of it.
And a welcoming parade for his return, is this women serious?
A not-so-famous movie actress, especially for her acting, accusing Australia Prime Minister of being smutty, wow.
Get a life Pamela, and choose carefully those who you choose to defend and who you accuse of being smutty.
Peter Doddy, Trevallyn.
Liberal nightmare
DON Davey (Letters, November 28) should concern himself with the rabble of a political party ie, Liberal that he blindly supports.
The election of a Labor government under the strong leadership of Bill Shorten will be a relief after the faction-riddled chaotic, incompetent group of misfits we have running the country at the moment. It would appear that the antics of Courtney and Brooks in the Tasmanian Liberals are doing their level best to imitate their federal colleagues.
Francis Sheahan, Riverside.
Ambulance Tasmania
IT IS expected that today’s Ambulance service provides emergency response and a pre-hospital emergency care service to the community, but currently in Tasmania we may have an “Ambulance” but there is no reliable “service”.
As a retired paramedic and Regional Manager for the Queensland Ambulance Service, I am appalled as to the lack of community service obligation the Hodgman Government and Ambulance Tasmania shows toward our sick and injured people.
Tasmania is small, without the tyranny of distance, so what is taking so long for ambulances to respond to our sick and injured?
Obviously, vacant shifts, overworked and fatigued paramedics and resourced infrastructure are all compounding to the lack of ambulance service to Tasmanians.
No wonder Ambulance Tasmania response times are amongst the worst in the country and, with any delayed ambulance response, patient outcomes and survivability are most certainly compromised.
Our hard-working Tasmanian paramedics really do care for their patients; that is why they do what they do, however, Ambulance Tasmania is failing to support our paramedics with the operational resources needed for “Best Practice” response.
Clearly, if there is a vacant shift at an ambulance facility then there is no ambulance service in that community.
This is unacceptable by anyone’s standards.
This is Tasmania, not a Third World country, so the Hodgman Government and Ambulance Tasmania needs not be complacent, but address this issue directly and aggressively.
They should work toward entering a modern age ambulance service where timely emergency response to our Tasmanian communities is their key performance measure.
Philip Tobin, Breona.
Appreciation
RECENTLY it became necessary for my husband to call for an ambulance to our home in the country.
I was fortunate to receive a swift response.
The paramedics were so professional and treated me with respect, kindness and calmness to make me feel more comfortable in a very vulnerable situation.
On arrival at the LGH, once again I was blessed with swift attention from the nursing staff and doctors.
My care in the emergency department was most commendable.
Much gratitude to all concerned.