Haydn's Blog

My Life on the Web

Peak sunshine

Feb 3

Posted by Haydn in Outdoors | No Comments

Becs and I took advantage of the good weather a couple of weeks ago to visit Edale and run from Mam Nick around to the top of Jacob's Ladder. I then left her to carry on to Edale while I slogged back up the hill to fetch the car. We did well with conditions, as the boggy ground between Rushup Edge and Brown Knoll was sufficiently frozen to avoid us sinking thigh-deep in the swampy sections that normally grab you.

Becs on Rushup Edge. © Haydn Williams 2012

Becs on Rushup Edge. © Haydn Williams 2012

The paragliders were out in force; I counted twenty in the air at one time as I returned to the car (and saw one crash-land into a dry-stone wall, but he was OK!). My entry for this year's Edale Skyline has recently been confirmed, so I just need to recce the rest of the route now. Saturday was spent at the Peak Edge Hotel, a new establishment which seems to be the only contemporary hotel in the entire Peak District! Heartily recommended though, with lovely rooms and cracking food on the room service menu (nothing says post-run recovery like curry with half rice / half chips!).

Ice under the trig point on Brown Knoll. © Haydn Williams 2012

Ice under the trig point on Brown Knoll. © Haydn Williams 2012

On Sunday we returned home via Sherwood Pines. Becs hired a bike and we did a lap of the blue loop, then she retired to the car to warm up while I had a quick blast around the Kitchener trail. It was bitterly cold; the horrible damp pentrating kind that seeps into every fibre of your body, but it did have the welcome effect of making the trails pretty easy going. Despite running the previous day and having already done 10km on the blue loop with Becs, I rode a new personal best of sub-50 minutes, so had a nice finish to a lovely weekend.

Tags: , , , ,

Finally – winter!

Feb 1

Posted by Haydn in Outdoors | No Comments

So far, the 2011/12 season hasn't delivered the best winter climbing conditions. Nevertheless, I've just returned from Aviemore with MPS, where a brilliant weekend was had by all. I was at a meeting in London on Thursday, so took the sleeper train from Euston to Aviemore; I had a seat rather than a berth, but it wasn't too unbearable and I managed to get a bit of sleep.

My office, dining room and bedroom. © Haydn Williams 2012

My office, dining room and bedroom. © Haydn Williams 2012

I walked from the station to the accommodation, where I met up with the rest of the group and we set off for our respective days out. Lots of people were on courses covering everything from beginner's skills through to winter  climbing, while others were off on more difficult terrain. A lack of snow meant that lots of usually-easy gully routes were actually quite difficult, so Matt and I decided to tackle Fiacaill Ridge (II).

Savage atop the first pitch of Fiacaill Ridge. © Haydn Williams 2012

Savage atop the first pitch of Fiacaill Ridge. © Haydn Williams 2012

We had reasonable conditions, and Matt led the two pitches with aplomb. The powdery snowy meant we didn't need axes or crampons, but I'll confess that I still found the clambering hard work! A very enjoyable route, and after descending the Goat Track we found ourselves back at the ski centre in plenty of time for cake.

A pair of supposedly 'rare' Ptarmigan. We saw more of the buggers than you could shake a stick at. © Haydn Williams 2012

A pair of supposedly 'rare' Ptarmigan. We saw more of the buggers than you could shake a stick at. © Haydn Williams 2012

After some brief excitement with a flat minibus battery, food and warmth finally got to me and I retired early for some much-needed proper sleep. Saturday was bright and sunny, with a great forecast, so Matt and I recruited Ben for a walk over Cairn Gorm and on to Ben Macdui. Conditions were excellent, with good going on the snow and easy navigation in great visibility.

Cairns on Cairn Gorm. © Haydn Williams 2012

Cairns on Cairn Gorm. © Haydn Williams 2012

Despite numerous stops for photographs and a generally laid-back approach to the day, we despatched the route in good time and once more retired to the cafe for cakes. An early return to the hut even saw us with time to sort out gear and snatch a quick nap before the others returned from their respective days out.

Ben, Savage and myself on the summit of Cairn Gorm. © Haydn Williams 2012

Ben, Savage and myself on the summit of Cairn Gorm. © Haydn Williams 2012

Ben and Matt crossing the plateau towards Ben Macdui. © Haydn Williams 2012

Ben and Matt crossing the plateau towards Ben Macdui. © Haydn Williams 2012

Sunday's forecast was excellent too, albeit with a little wind. As soon as we arrived at the ski centre, it was clear that the forecast was wrong. Matt and I tagged along into Coire an-t'Sneachda with a group headed for Ben Macdui, and went up the Goat Track. We found a slightly steeper approach to the right of the main path, and it was nice to finally get my axes into some proper snow for the first time in two years. Alas, it was over all too quickly and we left the Ben Macdui group to battle headwinds while we looped around the lip of Coire an Lochain and down into the cwm.

Looking south from the summit of Ben Macdui. © Haydn Williams 2012

Looking south from the summit of Ben Macdui. © Haydn Williams 2012

Once there we played around on a snow slope to test how far out calves could go before finally exploding. We soon tired of self-flagellation and returned to the ski centre. There, we were greeted by a cafe staff member calling our dedication to cake "ridiculous", and questioning whether we had actually been out anywhere all weekend. How rude (although probably entirely fair)!

Rosie waiting for the rest of the group at the top of the Goat Track. © Haydn Williams 2012

Rosie waiting for the rest of the group at the top of the Goat Track. © Haydn Williams 2012

A late departure meant I didn't arrive home until 2:20 on Monday morning, knackered but pleased with three really good days. There's even been snow in North Wales now, so fingers crossed this is the start of winter proper!

NHS Claims Dashboard

Jan 26

Posted by Haydn in IT | No Comments

Time for a couple more NHS-related dashboards, this time looking at claims made against NHS organisations. There are three main schemes that are run – Clinical Negligence Scheme for Trusts (CNST), Risk Pooling Scheme for Trusts (RPST) and the Existing Liabilities Scheme (ELS). CNST and ELS relate to clinical negligence claims post- and pre-1st April 1995 respectively, while RPST covers non-clinical claims. All three schemes fall under the umbrella of the NHS Litigation Authority (NHSLA).

Handily, the NHSLA makes available data relating to the number and value of claims, released each year as "Factsheet 5" in the "NHSLA Factsheets" section (doesn't work in Safari). Factsheet 3 gives graphs by specialty, although not raw numbers it seems, and includes the possibly surprising fact that nearly 40% of claims last year were abandoned. I've combined the high-level raw data from 2003/04 to 2010/11 into one large dataset and then performed some extra manipulation to sanitise it a little (see the end of this post if you want the details).

The number of claims has escalated in recent years, as has the amount of money being paid out,  and hopefully the charts below show these trends in an easily-digestible format. One word of warning though: think carefully about the numbers involved. The second dashboard shows the amount paid out in total across all schemes, which last reached £860 million pounds, and the figures being circulated for potential liability across all current cases top £16 billion. Numerous publications have looked into the reasons behind the changes, ranging from increased numbers of claims in times of recession, to increased – or non-existant – upper limits to claim values. This isn't my area of expertise, so I'll leave it to others to interpret the stats accordingly.

Speaking of stats, the NHSLA themselves put some good information on the front worksheet of each "factsheet" that they publish, and I would encourage anyone digging into these figures to read that blurb too. Note that, as discussed above, I have amended the data in the interests of collating it into a single dataset, so whilst I accept responsibility for any errors and/or omissions resulting from that process, the raw data provided by the NHSLA  should always be taken as the gold standard for anyone drawing major conclusions from the information presented here.

The first dashboard looks at the numbers of claims received, including a comparison of whether a PCT with a larger population has more claims, while the second focuses on the cost of these claims overall, and the damages paid out.

Notes on the Data:

The standard data has been manipulated a bit to create my final version.  Note that the requirement to change the data shouldn't necessarily be viewed as confirmation that it is inherently flawed; most of these amendments were made to facilitate analysis rather than correct errors. The revised dataset used to create the dashboards above can be downloaded here(MS Excel spreadsheet, 3Mb). The following changes have been performed:

  • Combined the 'Trust' and 'PCT' sheets
  • Standardised organisation names, using the most recent name on a sheet (2010/11). This is basically to harmonise name changes, e.g. a Trust becoming a Foundation Trust, and also deals with spelling errors and different abbreviations used across the years (e.g. "Mental Health Trust" vs. "MHT"). Some discrepancies will still be present where, for example, Trusts merged or split during the sample period.
  • Filled in blanks for Strategic Health Authority using most recent values (one set of names is used to 2004/05, all are blank for 2005/06, a new set is used after that)
  • Amended population values for 2010/11 from 000s to actual number, e.g. 306.5 becomes 306,500

Tags: , , , , , , ,