A Foreign Care Worker In the UK

By Peter Wilk

Dear Reader,

I had been thinking for quite a long time as to what to write as a prologue, and at the end, I decided not to use strong words, but just to write what was on my mind. Whenever I read a book, I have to start with the prologue, and so often, I find it boring, just reading it and at the same time thinking what it is about, as there are not so many things I am interested in, and eventually, I always find it interesting.

I did not want to write something that would make you sleepy, so it is time to wake up.

I have always felt like expressing my opinion to reveal what is going on in the care industry. Maybe you can find the similarity in other issues. I had hoped it was not possible, but during my lifetime, I have had some similar experience. If you, dear reader, are younger, maybe you would not have this kind of experience; if you, dear reader, are elder, and I would say you are already past your prime, then you would find what you would read similar to what you experienced at some stage in your life. Meanwhile, I hope you find my story interesting and entertaining.

I would like to express my gratitude to the following:

I would like to thank those who made me write this book. Had they not reacted in that special way, I would not have had anything to write about.

Special thanks to my partner who never gave up trusting me, and I enjoy her full support.

So be prepared for a story that gives you an opportunity to decide whether it is real or just fiction.

I recommend this book to anyone who would be thinking of using this service: to end users and family members, to social workers, including civil partnerships advisors, and to everybody who wants to read something that others write just to give the endless support for something that is more dead than alive.

 

 

I wrote this book because my situation had been hopeless, and I could blame the company, but I am already too tired to blame anyone. I just want to work and see the smile on the clients' faces while I make them as happy as possible. Everybody could have his or her own judgement about the facts I experienced. Nobody is perfect. Based on what I could see in the UK, I think the concept is different from the reality. Due to the present economic situation, finding a job is really difficult. I think the middle management workers do not mind at all. The concept was built by people who are clever and people who are enthusiastic and who really want to make changes. I hope this book can help to reassess the real situation, and with my book, I can help to improve this situation. Whenever I had a twenty-four-hours changeover, all or most of my carer colleagues told me the same stories or even worse stories about the company and the behaviour of the managers. I do not have any reason not to believe them because of my own experience. I really believe that this system could work better!

Thank you.

The writer.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Peter Wilk
• Release date: Apr 5, 2023
• ISBN: 9798215101070

Book preview

The True Story of Healthcare: A Foreign Care Worker in the UK

Peter Wilk

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Dedication

In Memoriam Mr James Campbell

––––––––

Special thanks to my girlfriend who was always on my side and who helped me in the most difficult times.

Thanks to the company who I am working for because if they were not operating in the way they are, this book could not have been written.

Prologue

Dear Reader,

I had been thinking for quite a long time as to what to write as a prologue, and at the end, I decided not to use strong words, but just to write what was on my mind. Whenever I read a book, I have to start with the prologue, and so often, I find it boring, just reading it and at the same time thinking what it is about, as there are not so many things I am interested in, and eventually, I always find it interesting.

I did not want to write something that would make you sleepy, so it is time to wake up.

I have always felt like expressing my opinion to reveal what is going on in the care industry. Maybe you can find the similarity in other issues. I had hoped it was not possible, but during my lifetime, I have had some similar experience. If you, dear reader, are younger, maybe you would not have this kind of experience; if you, dear reader, are elder, and I would say you are already past your prime, then you would find what you would read similar to what you experienced at some stage in your life. Meanwhile, I hope you find my story interesting and entertaining.

I would like to express my gratitude to the following:

I would like to thank those who made me write this book. Had they not reacted in that special way, I would not have had anything to write about.

Special thanks to my partner who never gave up trusting me, and I enjoy her full support.

So be prepared for a story that gives you an opportunity to decide whether it is real or just fiction.

I recommend this book to anyone who would be thinking of using this service: to end users and family members, to social workers, including civil partnerships advisors, and to everybody who wants to read something that others write just to give the endless support for something that is more dead than alive.

Enjoy the book!

Contents

Summary

Chapter 1 The Chef

Chapter 2 After the Recovery

Chapter 3 Self-Healing

Chapter 4 To Be Tired!

Chapter 5 The Training

Chapter 6 The Beginning

Chapter 7 The Rules!

Chapter 8 Something New!

Chapter 9 The New Home

Chapter 10 The Ice Has Broken

Chapter 11 The Holiday

Chapter 12 Get the Work Done

Chapter 13 The Sickening Matter

Chapter 14 The Real Company Support or the Faces Behind the Masks . . .

Chapter 15 The Claim

Chapter 16 New Year, New Life!?

Introduction

Some parts of the book could make you smile or cry or do nothing at all!

It is about the endless struggle to make the end user happy from one side and the carelessness from an award-winning organisation from the other side. It is about the weakness of a system believed to be strong.

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the reality I experienced in the UK care industry.

The message of the book is not absolutely the bad that is behind the scenes; rather it highlights the vulnerability of a system that should work perfectly – a system that costs lots and lots of money to the taxpayer, the government, and the end user. It highlights the vulnerability of the system because of the human nature that talks of selfishness, laziness, carelessness, or, with one word: human frailty. It is strange to use these words about something that is meant to reach exactly the opposite target. Everybody has the right to have their own judgement to decide what to feel about the written facts. I have also highlighted the legal slavery of the modern age.

A chain is only as strong as its weakest link. (Thomas Reid’s Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man)

Chapter 1

The Chef

April 2007

It was just one busy day of the many during the past seventeen years. I woke up as usual and had the morning meeting with the chefs in one of the restaurants of the ship. We had a really busy breakfast service that morning. The passengers went ashore for a tour right after breakfast, and everything went fine.

After breakfast, I had a meeting with a person who had some inferiority complex. He always used to ask his employees as to what to do and how. He was quite ugly too, and he did not feel supported. So when your executive chef is not sure what his role is, the ship is already sinking. I explained him the menu as usual, and he said, ‘You should not be the sous-chef. You should be the executive chef.’

‘Well, yes, I suppose so,’ I replied.

I thought there was only one reason: I had a foreign passport. Even my seventeen years of experience on sea as a chef was enough to get a position like that, I thought. An Eastern European usually cannot get a position like that, no matter the experience.

The difference between us was obvious. The guys from the galley never went to him, they always came to me. I was happy to have good relations with and respect from my inferiors. We worked together like a Swiss watch.

On that day, the tour was interesting for the passengers in Amsterdam. They went to see the old city centre which is the most visited area of Amsterdam. This part is well known for its traditional architecture, the canals, and there is a chance for some shopping, and of course, least but not last, you may find interesting the authentic coffee shops where you probably won’t choose coffee from the coffee chart.

Evening was approaching, and the tour was soon ending. It was time to start preparing for dinner. I had the usual menu meeting with the cooks and then with the dining room personnel. Between the two meetings, I went to the open deck for some fresh air for a few minutes. I had an urgent call from the kitchen. I was in a rush down on the steel maiden stairway whose surface, to my misfortune, is quite slippery most of the time. The slippery staircase and the rush are not the best of friends. I slipped just a bit and then fell down over the staircase. Then I realised that I could not move my legs and felt pain in my back. I was shocked. I could not move at all, and a bit later, someone from the reception ran to give me some help. When the receptionist realised there was not much to do, he called for an ambulance.

Soon the ambulance arrived and they took me to the nearest hospital for examination. I got some painkillers to reduce my pain and it did not work, so I got morphine in my vein. It started to work immediately. I got a little dizzy at the same time, but the most important thing was that I did not feel that sharp pain any longer. When the X-ray had been done sometime later, the doctor told me he had bad news. My spine was broken in three different places.

My ship had to keep the schedule, so they left without me.

Because of the lack of insurance, they did not do much with me. I called my family to come to Amsterdam and take me home. My uncle arrived by car ten hours later, and we arrived in Poland two days after the accident where I got the best possible treatment. Despite the treatment, I was still foredoomed to stay in a wheelchair.

It was quite obvious to me that I would not able to go back to my occupation in the near future or maybe ever. I was absolutely depressed. One day, I was a well-appreciated chef, but the next day, my entire life had collapsed. I was trying to find a healing treatment, find the best doctors to help me out of this situation.

I could not find any help. Fortunately, the spinal marrow was in one piece; the doctor told me it had not been damaged, so there was still hope for a proper recovery. The very slow healing process started to give some small signs after four months.

My feet were off the wheelchair foot rest, and my partner who was just passing by stepped on my foot accidentally. I felt it! I had some normal pain, but I started to have some tears in my eyes. She asked me what she had done. I said there was nothing wrong but just that I felt some pain. I could see in her eyes that she did not know how to ask. I just started to smile with the tears in my eyes, and she smiled back at me. After a big hug, which was filled with tears and smile and laughter, she called the doctor to tell him what had happened. From that point, I started to fly, for I was happier than ever.

My muscles needed to be rebuilt, and at the same time, I had to learn how to walk again. Every morning, I was happy to wake up because I knew it would be a successful day again. With a lot of work and exercise with the physiotherapist, I was going to walk again. At a point, unfortunately, there was no progress at all. However, we worked on it, but I could just not get closer to normal.

Day by day, I just got a bit depressed, and I said it couldn’t be like that, it couldn’t be the end of it. I would finish what I had started. I searched the Internet for a solution. Just like a magic, I found something interesting. I found two devices that seemed to be the solution, and at the same time, I started a special nutrition with a special diet. The combination of those three worked. Slowly, the invested work was worth it; of course, I needed time, but my brain switched to another mode again, and I liked it.

Day by day, I kept feeling better. I did not even think about what to expect when I would fully recover. I was just flying above the pink clouds and enjoying every moment.

Chapter 2

After the Recovery

February 2008

It was a beautiful sunny morning. When I looked out of the window, I could see the golden brown wheat fields and the neighbouring woodland. Birds were singing as if they were in the rainforest.

Due to the result of my recovery, I was thinking about sharing with others those alternative healing practices that helped me to recover.

I was thinking of how I could make my experience available for others. I had a conversation about it with my partner who agreed it needed to be shared. The major question was how.

The following day, I went to see one of my best friends, who was the local GP at the time, and I asked his opinion about this: how to help people and, at the same time, how to make a little money just to cover the expenses. He said it was a really good idea and that he would also support me by providing a treatment room in his practice.

So we started to make plans on how to arrange the spare room to be a treatment room. When the plan was ready, the construction works could be started. It took a week for an alternative treatment room to be ready. We were absolutely happy about the result. It was a nice quiet room, slightly dark with some candle-style lamps and light, relaxing music. We just needed to have only one thing for success: clients. We had two options to have clients for our new business that was rather a rehabilitation centre that could just keep itself up from the income. So the two options were either to introduce it by my friend Attila (the GP) to the clients from the practice, and this sounded as a really good idea, or, at least at the beginning, to do some advertising. Neither of us was an experienced advertisement agent; we just had some points we thought would be good to be mentioned. I called Charlie, a well-trained and experienced advert guy with a charming personality, who was in his early forties. The plan had been sketched to Charlie, and he immediately understood our goals. Two days later, we got the leaflet and the newspaper advert plan; all was just on the edge. They were absolutely superb. In a week, the advert was in the local paper. It was a week-long waiting time to see if the advert worked or not.

Fortunately, we already had a GP to introduce and to start the new service with clients.

I can clearly remember the first day when the healing treatment centre started. I woke up for a cloudy, sad, really cold day in early February. During breakfast with Gabi (my partner), I had a conversation about the usual things and could slightly touch stress in the air because of the first morning that I was to spend working in a job which was created by myself for myself in order to make others feel good. When I got up to leave, she wished me good luck – not the most common wish in times like this, but she wished me the big one . . .

When I arrived to the GP, Attila told me the clients were looking forward to see me because he had already sent some. I was quite a bit surprised; I did not think it would be so popular on the first day, and the advert was not out yet. Two hours later, the calendar was full for the next two weeks, and all devices run. I had to get on really quickly. I had some notes I had prepared, and I also learned what makes it more interesting and more marketable. I was trying to use all my experiences too. Some of the people greeted me. Of course, we lived in a small town where almost everybody knew each other. More or less, they knew my story; they just did not know about the secret that had made me walk again.

I was a bit puzzled in this unexpected situation, but I needed to react quickly. If they realised that you were not on the top of what you did in the business, the willing to share the helpful thing and the trust was just to be going away in seconds. All my knowledge and personal experience needed to show a well-focused and competent lecturer. I am using the word lecturer deliberately because the spirit of a GP has always been to show professionalism.

Personally, I did not feel I had been prepared for this in the first day, but often, it is simply better to dive into the deep water and start to swim and so I did. I had to appear as I knew exactly what was going on. I needed to think hard about my private studies; it was like an exam. This exam could only be done once, and if you fail . . .

It went very well. I was really enjoying the situation, and the clients showed their interest while I was giving them the information about the treatments.

A treatment lasted an hour. For the first hour, I needed to assure the people about the effect to make them buy a ticket for a minimum of twenty times to have an income and also to give a chance for them to get to know me.

In this kind of business, there is nothing that can be more powerful than trust and the beliefs.

The business ran very well. No, I am sorry, the business got really popular – popular is the right word. I got to know a lot of people – first of all, the elderly people who came to try the treatment. Every day I was there for the first clients by 07.00 and left the shop at 21.00. Two weeks later, we decided to invest some more money to be able to give an opportunity for more people to try the treatment. We doubled the machinery by the third Monday. The people came and were really content. I could even say happy because of the results. I had a good feeling as I could do something useful again. It was a breakthrough after my accident; although in this kind of business, it is really hard to survive.

The reason is quite simple. In our civilised world, the ‘only’ treatment or cure can be done or could be suggested or could be taken seriously at all is the word of the doctor. Some doctors are really nice and cooperative even when traditional medicine and treatment cannot help.

I told Attila, ‘Can you do anything else than to offer your pills? There are thirty patients in the waiting room, and there are maybe ten major illnesses that you have to treat with drugs.’

Have you ever heard of anyone who got cured from cancer by conventional medicine? Have you heard about anyone who had been cured from high blood pressure or diabetes or psoriasis or epilepsy or depression or any heart disease, allergy, asthma, or Alzheimer or autoimmune disease . . . ? I mean cured to restore the original healthy status of the patient? Conventional medication is only to cover the symptoms. This is called symptomatic treatment. Pharmaceutical factories are pouring into the market lots of different kinds of pills for the same problem, and there is still no cure.

What I am asking is, do they really want to cure diseases and restore the previous healthy status, or are they just doing endless researches to survive in this money-grubbing world? I am not saying there’s no need for conventional medication and treatments. What I am saying is that for sure there is no need for the amount of medicine that is on the market at the moment. How could this system work without the support of governments? Of course, it could not! What could be behind the scenes? Can it be more important to make money than to have a real cure? How is it possible that we have the above-mentioned problems and the doctor asks, ‘Which colour tablets would you like – the yellow one or the green one?’ How can it be discovered within a few minutes what kind of chemical is the one that would be an effective cure for the just mentioned complaint? All doctors know their role (God to be played). Some of them are honest, and some of them are really blind after the brainwash at the university. Is the amount of medication found on the market really necessary? I believe we do need some medication, but I am sure what I can see that patients leave the surgery, and after the visit, they have a handful of receipt for different medicines. They could just as well have a handful of plastic pills. Just imagine how ‘good’ it is to have the medication prescribed for them for ‘free’. Is it really free? Someone has to pay for that, and someone sells it. Who is the seller, and who is the payer? It is quite simple. Pharmaceutical factories are selling at reasonable prices. Of course, we can ask what is reasonable. And all of us pay them when we pay for our health insurance. Is it really the target to cure and prevent or the target to prolong the real problem and treat only the symptoms, especially if profit of pharmaceutical companies profit is bigger than the profit coming from oil or weapons?

The human body is not designed to have chemicals and plastic in it. Accept it or not, the truth is we are part of the nature. Our bodies are built from materials that can be found in the nature. Do we really have the capability to be honest to ourselves? Can we truly ask ourselves, ‘Did you do everything for yourself today?’ Is there a true answer? If you are not using your body, it is going to cut back, and it would start to have malfunctions. You do not use your car’s engine in the red zone all the time. You use it in normal mode; otherwise, you need to be prepared to replace some engine spare parts. The situation in your body is exactly the same: if you always use your pancreas in the red zone rather soon, it would start to give signs of failure. We really should not eat such a large amount of white bread and refined flours. They use your pancreas in the red zone, and they are equally toxic for your body. All minerals, vitamins, fibre, and important nutrients have been washed out. Your body does not know how to digest it properly and assimilate it. They are blanched with chlorine and brominated with bromide. These chemicals cannot be found naturally in our food and body, and they have no place in our body. They are poisonous chemicals, causing damage to organs like thyroid, kidney, liver, pancreas and so on . . .

The people who came to me for help were already disappointed in the health-care services; they could not get help from them. First, I had to let them know they had to take a few steps to reach their target and that they were supposed to set their target, not me. All I can give is support. I am not a controller that they press like the remote control at home in front of the TV where they do not do anything, yet the results would be shown on the screen. Nor am I the delivery guy who brings the pizza coming straight from the pizza oven, minutes later served on a plate in front of the TV, which shows the recent and most popular Brazilian soap opera. I can encourage them, but they must have the power and the determination that will make them feel better. Of course, they have to change a few things, but for the changes, they need to change direction. If they do not want to do anything, I cannot offer the magical yellow or green tablets. A part of our nature is, for example, to make resolutions to let something go or just to start something, and we swear to continue. The human being is a social entity. It is easier to promise something if we have the feeling to have someone on our side, and we do not need to do that alone. When our hands are released, we feel hopeless for a while, but if we have enough power, we can be even stronger and brave and motivated.

Look at the eagle in the sky. When we see those wonderful, beautiful creatures in the blue sky while they are flying, the immediate thought is they rule the sky and that it is their territory. Nevertheless, we forget they were once vulnerable, that even they were in the egg once and that before they started to fly, they just had their instinct, nothing else. The problem with human beings is that we are too comfortable, and the instincts are left somewhere behind. We debate in ourselves what is good for us; of course, it could be something totally different for everybody. That is another reason why I am wondering on having more or less the same medication and the same treatment for everybody.

Chapter 3

Self-Healing

It’s good to have the right decision as it is halfway to success. The other half is another matter. So many times, I was asked about the extra pain as the temporary result of homeopathy or alternative self-healing treatment. Yes, pain, pains are liable to occur during the process. It is always something that when I just told about is different. At the beginning, they are just words. We are really like ‘everybody’ – my plane would not crash – but there are always people on the aeroplane. Or like the person under the gallows who would just try to believe until the very last moment that it would not happen to them. Or the convict in the death row, who believes until the very last moment they would not get the deadly injection.

Our business is not so dramatic; it’s even a little bit more fun for some of the elderly ladies who come to have a special treatment. For them, any attention means cure. It is really nice to have someone who listens to your problem, something that does not cost too much money, and during the daily process, you can feel you are special.

Everybody who came to me for help was special. And then, over time, they were not my – our – clients; they were more than that: they rather became guests. I do not know exactly what the key to our success was; I believe it was me. When someone tells you something, that is just a word or words. If you can hear it from hundreds, it is not gossip any more; it is rather news. More and more people who needed healing visited us; we just did not have capacity for them. Our GP practice was really out of the city, but people came from every part of the city. They were talking about some miracle. There was no miracle; however, there was an hour when the guests could forget their daily problems, and someone was there to listen to them. Many times, I was asked, ‘How long would my pain exist?’ The answer was always, ‘I do not know. It has so many components.’ If the guest is forcing the problematic part, or not taking it seriously enough, there is not much to talk about. I met people who still thought that all they had to do was to come and that no other changes were needed. Fortunately, I had influence on our guests, and as far as I knew, they did what they needed to reach their target to feel they are flying