Showing posts tagged with: government

Care costs to be capped for elderly

Pensioners who face selling their homes to pay for long-term care will be offered state protection for the first time under government plans to be outlined next week.

Ministers are expected to put on record their commitment to the principle of   introducing a “cap” on the amount individuals pay for care during their lives to prevent costs reaching “catastrophic” levels.

The consequences of a busy day

Cast your mind back to 27 February. It was a Monday morning. The weather was pretty mild for the end of winter.

The day before Liverpool had won the Carling Cup football final, while the Sun on Sunday had just been launched.

For the NHS, it was to be the busiest day of the year.

The bed occupancy rate nationally was 92% - seven percentage points above the recognised safe level - according to an analysis by monitoring body Dr Foster.

Nearly half of the 145 trusts in England reported a bed occupancy rate of 95% or above.

There is nothing to suggest anything specific went wrong that day.

But what is certain is that staff working on the wards of hospitals up and down the country would have been struggling to keep up.

Quality of care

When bed occupancy tips the 85% mark the system goes into overdrive - and things start to give.

They may have to wait that little bit longer before their call bell is answered. There may not be enough staff to help the frail at meal times.

Discharge planning can go awry as hospitals become desperate to free up beds. That can mean they turf people out before they are ready or before the support in the community from district nursing teams and social care is in place.

Because of the shortage of beds, patients can find themselves moved around from ward to ward, inevitably finding themselves in unsuitable surroundings.

On their own, these things seem relatively minor, but added together they create the sort of care that leaves people feeling aggrieved and which, at its worse, is unsafe.

For the full article click here.

NHS facing 'tough savings challenge'

The NHS in England has been warned it must raise its game if it is to hit the ambitious savings targets it has been set and maintain services to patients.

The health service has been asked to find efficiencies of up to £20bn by 2015 to cope with rising demands.

The National Audit Office found it had made a good start, achieving virtually all its forecast £5.9bn in 2011-12.

But the report warned the push would get harder, as the easiest savings had been made first.

To read the full article click here.

Mental Health Medication Concern

Many people with severe mental health problems miss out on the care they should
receive for physical illnesses, researchers say.

A British Journal of Psychiatry paper found those with severe mental illness were less likely to get drugs for conditions such as high blood pressure.

The University of Leicester team reviewed 61 existing studies to reach their conclusions.

Campaigners said patients' physical health was "often overlooked".

The studies analysed by the team covered almost two million people, mainly living in the US.

They looked at treatment of conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, arthritis, osteoporosis and HIV.

It was found that patients with severe mental illness, such as schizophrenia, received lower than expected prescriptions for essential drugs to treat high blood pressure, including ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers and statins.

Overall, it was estimated that the rate of undertreatment for medical conditions was 10% for those with severe mental illness.

To read the full article, click here.

Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) becomes Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS)

The Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) is now called the Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) - CRB checks are now called DBS checks.

For the full update please click here.

Further information can also be read on the Disclosure and Barring Service website.