Anyone watching last night’s edition of Watchdog would have seen the BBC taking Allied Respiratory to task for their abject failures in the oxygen delivery system – which you may have read me blogging about in the past.
You would also have seen that doyen of small-screen campaigning, my good friend Emily, performing admirably in berating the oxygen companies whilst simultaneously looking gorgeous and intelligent at the same time.
Frankly, there was very little of substance to the programme by way of solutions, but it was invaluable to help highlight the problems that oxygen users are facing and the poor job that Allied have been doing. It was telling that they didn’t send anyone along to the programme, simply supplying an apology statement.
To this end – although not related to the Watchdog programme itself – I’ll be going along to a meeting at the end of the month with the Chief Exec of the CF Trust at the Department of Health along with representatives of Allied. Although pwcf are not the only ones who depend on oxygen delivery, it plays a significant part in many of their lives and any benefits or progress we can make on our behalf will only serve to benefit others as well.
Of course, it should really be Em’s realm to follow up her campaigning for better oxygen provision, but as we are all so wonderfully aware, she is otherwise detained at the moment!
Speaking of which, by way of an update – Emily was taken off her ventilator yesterday and is now breathing on her own with her bright, shiny, clean new lungs!! Hooray for her and here’s to many more years of happy deep breathing!