Posts by Angela Hart
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Access: Social media, disability…, in reply to Rosemary McDonald,
These people probably don’t see themselves as activists….
that's one heck of a story Rosemary, my Dad was Polish.
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Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to ,
Our GP friend struggled with an antiquated computer, till we encouraged her to buy a brand new plug and play Macintosh.
Our GP was perfectly comfortable with his Mac based practice, but was obliged to change to the Dark Side in order to have compatibility with DHB systems, apparently.
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Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to ,
But I really do want a Tesla battery, becouse I just want one.
I understand the attraction, I'll put one in with the cake :-)
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Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
What if we all had solar panels on the roof or our own wind turbine in the garden?
Trouble is you need batteries to store your solar power so you can use it at night, that seems to be where the major cost is for independence of supply now. Although batteries are getting cheaper and better all the time.
The craziest thing about solar at the moment is that if mains power goes off and you're grid connected, you loose your solar as well. Because of risk to linesmen if there is unexpectedly power on the line when they try to fix it. You'd think the system could be rigged to automatically disconnect from the grid and be reconnected, possibly manually, when power is restored.
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Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
The cheap inverter from dick smith, gives you a normal 240 plug output socket for the appliance, and red and black jumper leads for the car battery.
Great, that’s a practical solution which only needs manual connection as required. If I had your address I’d send you a cake! Thanks Steven.
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Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to izogi,
professional expert staff, who knew how to work with the often-flaky resources they had.
yup, same here in Auckland. The DHB's have been starved for too long and hospital equipment is often troublesome. Unfortunately it'll probably take a publicised needless death or two for the resourcing situation to be addressed sensibly.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/health/73584901/every-dhb-facing-cost-pressures-of-millions--labourAt the same time though, and I'm not focussing on the DHBs here, the way the Ministry of Health allocates its spending and restricts how funds can be used often results in far greater expense. We see them refuse to allow experts to use their professional judgement because they must stay within strict MOH imposed guidelines. Costs to the health system further down the line are exponentially magnified because of this cost centric rather than patient centred approach.
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Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to Moz,
portable UPS is actually a better solution in almost all cases, just because it’s flexible.
I'm unclear how I'd actually connect a UPS but I'll investigate further. When I asked an electrical firm about UPS some time ago, they checked things out and said it would be impractical because of cost. But that was the previous Bipap machine which may have needed more power.
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OK, a $70 inverter from dick smith, plugged into a car battery, is the minimum requirement. But it would have done the job.
The next level of back up would be:
(1) a $120 AGM battery, which are bog standard, and sealed. They are easy to move around.
(2) an inexpensive battery charger to keep it toped up.
(3) and a more fancy inverter, just for fun.
Did any of the people from any of the agency’s say any of that?
Nup. What we got was they can't do that (turn the power off), go to your GP, haven't you any rellies you can stay with, and no, you can't use Ministry of Health funding to solve this problem.
Thanks very much for this detailed list Steven, I will definitely explore the possibilities here. I have hesitated because the machine is not ours and obviously I don't want to damage it. But a reliable, ready to go back-up is a bloody good idea.
The immediate difficulty I think of with an off the shelf battery is how to connect it to the machine. On our current one there's no DC input port. The proprietary battery has the same plug as the mains adapter http://www.amazon.com/CPAP-Battery-Pack-ResMed-S9/dp/B007D270C4
I guess I could buy that kind of plug but then the issue would be ensuring the wiring was correct, without a wiring diagram- too risky unless there's a standard for which wires carry juice- red and black? -
Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to Hilary Stace,
There are 20 DHBs, about 15 NASCs and numerous power companies in New Zealand. You would think there was a standard process for dealing with these issues. Or that one could be developed.
yes, my thinking too. But it requires leadership from somewhere as well as a comprehensive understanding of the range of medical dependency and safety measures. A focus on patient safety rather than expediency or financial cost. A recognition that life is worth living even if it isn't the kind of life you might choose.
As with many situations we encounter, a properly thought through and applied solution is likely to be much more cost effective as well as better than the ad hoc situation we seem to have. -
Access: How many agencies does it take…, in reply to Moz,
portable UPS, not the computer-style installed ones. It’s basically a briefcase full of batteries, and I’m somewhat surprised that they’re not standard equipment for hospitals
Thanks Moz, that's extremely useful information, which I will follow up on. I'm not sure of the power needs of the BiPAP, there isn't actually much info on that apart from the ratings on the back of the machine. (a label says 24v DC, 1.25A(FG), 3.75A (sys). But it is a fairly powerful air pump and also has a small heating element for humidifying the air.