Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Lying MP #NadineDorries - Reported Disabled Twitter Critic To Police For Harassment !

(Updated)

Mrs Humphrey Cushion writes on Tim Ireland’s blog:
On the night I finally had my foot operation (and was in tremendous pain & bed ridden for 3 days), 2 policemen burst into my bedroom (having scared my children into letting them in) and proceeded to attempt to bully me into accompanying them to the police station for an interview regarding Dorries’ stalking allegations. I refused, had fantastic advice from my great friend @Gaijinsan21 & no further action was taken. It was immediately obvious to the police that it was Nadine who was the liar of the piece. 
Mrs Cushion’s account comes following Tim Ireland’s publication of a second chunk of a letter which Nadine Dorries sent to the the Chief Constable of Bedfordshire Police on 10 July 2010, in which she complained about several persons who were inconveniencing her by subjecting her performance as an MP to critical scrutiny.

Yesterday’s chunk of the letter dealt with her general complaints against Tim and his blog – today deals with his presence at a hustings event in the village of Flitwick (pronounced “Flit-ick”), and with her accusation against Mrs Cushion...read more


Rebecca Reasbeck :Care Home Death - Accused Walks Free


A young care home worker walked free today after a jury failed to reach a verdict on whether she killed an elderly resident by setting fire to her room.
Jurors trying Rebecca Reasbeck, 20, were discharged after deliberating for 17 hours and four minutes on whether or not she killed 85-year-old Irene Herring.

Prosecutors decided there would be no public interest in seeking a third trial and Judge Mr Justice Saunders formally entered a not guilty verdict.

Reasbeck broke down in tears in the dock as she realised she would soon be free, but offered no comment to reporters as she left Lewes Crown Court.

In an emotive statement following the case, Mrs Herring's widower David Herring said he hoped whoever killed his wife "will sincerely regret their actions" in the years ahead.

Reasbeck was alleged to have started the fire in Mrs Herring's top-floor room at Ancaster Court in Hastings Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, on February 1 2009.... read more

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/care-home-death-accused-walks-free-6262232.html

#NHS : #Lansley's Secret Report

What’s Andrew Lansley trying to hide?

 
For a year health minister Andrew Lansley has been refusing to publish a civil service report on the risks he’s taking with the NHS. He could still keep it hidden for another month – until after more key votes have taken place in the House of Lords.
We can’t wait, if the report is released immediately, it could persuade key members of the House of Lords to stand up to the government. Let’s raise an uproar in Parliament and force Lansley’s hand. Can you take two minutes now to email your MP?

To get started just enter your postcode on the right.


http://www.38degrees.org.uk/page/speakout/nhs-lansleys-secret-report

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Monday, October 17, 2011

Children With Brain Tumours. How Can WE Help ? Article By David Harney

David Harney has a heart as big as our young friend Harry Moseley, David always thinking of others just like Harry did. xx




http://davidharney67.blogspot.com/#!/2011/10/child-with-brain-tumor.html

Monday, October 10, 2011

#NHS :A blog on #Stafford Hospital following evidence from A&E nurse Helene Donnelly.

I’m moving a little outside my ‘social care’ remit because I came across a link on Twitter from @shaunlintern (Health Correspondent for the Express and Star – the local newspaper covering the West Midlands, including Staffordshire)  which linked to some of the evidence given at the The Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust Public Inquiry (pdf) – in particular to the evidence of one of the nurses who worked there.

The document makes quite frightening reading and coming on the back of the report from the Care Quality Commission that nearly half of the staff in NHS hospitals are not able to manage the nutritional needs of older patients and 40% fail to deliver ‘dignified’ care (from The Guardian) it raises more than a few questions.

Having spent some time in my working life, dealing with hospital discharges, particularly for older people, I don’t think that this is remotely related to ‘uncaring’ staff or as a perception of ‘university educated’ nurses that the tabloids like to raise up from time to time. I have come across some of the most professional, thoughtful and hardworking nurses.

Indeed, if you look at the first link to the evidence of the nurse, Helene Donnelly, who gave evidence in the inquiry, you will see that what she describes is a management and systemic failure in the process of providing health care to patients. It is a top down malaise rather than bottom up ‘laziness’.

She tells of a culture of fear and bullying that took place at management levels and was covered up by falsifying processes to meet targets that had been set. The flight towards Foundation status cost lives and all those involved were complicit in the associated poor care, distress and yes, even deaths.

In paragraph 13 of the evidence she (Helene Donnelly) states that
‘’falsifying records seemed insane; if the department was seen to be meeting the targets, we would never be allowed to recruit more staff or buy additional equipment. If I ever raised this as an issue, I was told in no uncertain terms that, if we didn’t meet the targets, heads would roll and A&E would be closed, with all of us losing our jobs. I understood this point but I was equally concerned about the terrible effect that our actions were having on patient care. I did raise this with Sisters (names redacted) however their response was extremely aggresive, basically telling me that they were in charge and accusing me, and anyone else who agreed with me, of not being team players. Anyone who made trouble, as they saw it, was ostracised from the team and had to endure constant bitchy comments’.
Donnelly goes on to explain how visits by Monitor to regulate the services were ‘explained away’ by telling them that there were ‘fed a line’ about it being a temporary situation and that when the coveted Foundation Status was acquired, there would be more money for more staff.
Of course that comes as little consolation to those who have passed through the doors and passed away within the hospital during the drive towards Foundation status but I think that paragraph illuminates the management push within the hospital and the reign of terror affected on nurses and patients by their seniors. This is not about ‘ground level’ nursing support. It is about systemic and institutional abuse of both staff and patients by a use of power to mask real failings.

Donnelly went on to explain how she did make a statement in 2007 when she felt she had to ‘whistleblow’ and was told that a number of junior doctors told her it was ‘about time’ (paragraph 21).
She says
‘I responded by suggesting that they speak out too, however I understood and respected the fact that they were worried about their jobs. At one point, a band of doctors.. wrote a joint statement. However they were later persuaded to  retract this when a superior told them that it would not look good on their record, being junior doctors’.
So again, this a top-down abuse of power in respect to the ethical and moral codes of caring for patients rather than a grass roots problem.

As Donnelly’s evidence (and it is worth reading in full) she continues to recount what happens until an inquiry was requested.

She sums up her evidence with ‘learning points’ and for me, some of the most crucial parts of the evidence come when she talks about targets

In paragraph 53 she says
‘In principle, I agree with the government targets.. but the system is being completely abused. Patients are still lying on trolleys for twelve hours, they are just doing it in a different room; a room not classed as A&E… having a fine as a deterrent means that the Hospital loses out financially, so has even less money for staff and also increases the fear factor for the staff. Managers are frightened of the people above them in Government and they put that fear factor onto departmental managers which then trickles all the way down’.
For me, that sums up the problem that has been perpetuated in the health and social care systems. The targets and outcome measures in themselves are not problematic (in most cases!) but the push towards them that makes managers forget the small matters of personal care and attention to the experience of the hospital of the patient really do.

Papers that blame frontline nurses for not spending time feeding patients need to look at the ways the wards are managed and the ways the hospital is managed as a whole.
For me, though the questions remain:-

Have we stopped caring about those older people (as those were the group who primarily died disproportionately in Stafford Hospital) so an increased death rate wasn’t noticed?

Would it have been a different case had the patient affected been younger and more vocal and more mindful of their own rights to receive good care?

Would more independent advocacy in general hospitals help?
And finally-

On the basis that the so-called ‘buck’ stops at the top, how on earth was Cynthia Bower. who was the Chief Executive of NHS West Midlands (which includes the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust in its remit) ever promoted to be Chief Executive of the Care Quality Commission – the organisation responsible for regulating care delivery in health and social care settings?


http://notsobigsociety.wordpress.com/about/

Search For The Perfect Scrounger

Job Description :

Must have absolutely nothing wrong with them.

Must "claim" child has ADHD or similar when in fact we all know they are just "naughty" and it's really all down to "bad parenting".

Must drive BMW or better, all paid for under the motability scheme...read more

http://diaryofabenefitscrounger.blogspot.com/2011/10/search-for-perfect-scrounger.html?spref=tw

#Alzheimer's Diagnostic Test, Misleading the Reader?

Contributed by: Dennis Fortier, President, Medical Care Corporation

http://www.braintoday.com/

Sunday, October 9, 2011

#NHS : Last Chance To STOP NHS Shake -Up

Polly Toynbee brilliantly summarises the situation we as citizens find ourselves in, as Lansley's health and social care bill railroads through parliament at breakneck speed, despite its complexity (This shocking NHS bill is without sense or mandate, 8 October).

Cameron intervenes in Libya in order to uphold the values of democracy, but the way this bill – designed to turn the NHS into a market, despite the evidence that healthcare is unsuitable for market mechanisms – has been managed is anything but democratic. That is why we are having to rely on the unelected House of Lords to throw this bill out.

We would ask your readers to lobby the Lords and ask them to support Lord Rea's amendment. As a former GP he, like Keep Our NHS Public, the BMA and the 400 doctors who wrote to the peers last week, believes the bill should be withdrawn and so has tabled an amendment "to decline to read the bill a second time". This would effectively stop the bill in this session and enable us all to have a real debate about the way our NHS should be organised.

It is not too late to do this. Lansley has told at least one peer privately that "the costs of the NHS going forward are unsustainable and the whole 'business model' of the NHS needs to be revised". We agree with the latter statement and believe that, as the health select committee suggested in 2010, commissioning has failed, and we should follow Scotland and Wales's example and abolish the purchaser/provider split introduced by Kenneth Clarke in 1990. Following Sunday's sit-down protest on Westminster bridge by UK Uncut, we hope the Lords will listen to the people and respond.

Wendy Savage

Co-chair,


• Your article (NHS will not fund some operations, patients told, 4 October) exemplifies our objections to the health bill that will change the NHS into a market-based system. As the NHS "saves" £5bn from its annual budget, it follows that as well as becoming more "efficient" it will provide fewer services – as the budget shrinks so do services provided.

GPs in York are not the first to spot a gap in the oncoming market in English healthcare by offering to provide what the NHS no longer will – at a price. These are the same GPs that will be put at the centre of the NHS procurement by the health bill. They have a vested interest in providing less under the NHS so they can provide more privately. This, we fear, is the model the government has in mind when pushing the much-criticised and unnecessary health "reforms".

Dr Ron Singer

President, Medical Practitioners' Union – the doctors' section of Unite
Keep Our NHS Public

http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2011/oct/09/last-chance-stop-nhs-shakeup

#HarryMoseley : Players Tribute For Harry..

#NHS #blockthebridge : This shocking NHS bill is without sense or mandate

NHS operation under scrutiny

Under scrutiny … the health and social care bill reaches the House of Lords next week. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
 
Westminster Bridge, joining parliament and St Thomas's hospital, will be blocked on Sunday at one o'clock by a UK Uncut sit-down protest against the NHS bill that reaches the House of Lords next week.

The Lords have the last chance to amend the health and social care bill's most egregious clauses. Despite its gigantic size, basic questions remain unanswered. The Tory MP and GP Sarah Wollaston once called it "a hand grenade thrown into the NHS" – and so it is proving. The Lords should be alarmed by the constitutional enormity of this largely unscrutinised bill for which there was no manifesto mandate. 

As it levers the NHS open to EU competition law, who is democratically accountable for its £120bn budget? Who is to answer for its quality or failures? Who commands its privatised fragments in times of crisis or pandemic? The Lords have a duty to scrutinise the most contentious parts of a bill railroaded through the Commons in just two days after the "pause", with 1,000 new amendments undebated. "The fundamental principles remain" boasted Andrew Lansley at his party conference: not much changed. Scrutiny of slapdash legislation is what the Lords are for...read more

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2011/oct/07/nhs-bill-no-mandate-lords?INTCMP=SRCH

#NHS #blockthebridge Video

#NHS #Staffordshire #Hospital. Rampant bullying. Falsification of records in pursuit of Foundation status. Over 1000 dead

Thursday, October 6, 2011

#HarryMoseley : Tweets From Wellwishers

#Cancer : #Pancreatic Cancer Cases Declining But Disease Is Often Deadly

#HarryMoseley : Help Harry Help Others..

Harry, an amazing 11 year old who has become an inspiration to everyone on twitter. We ALL love you Harry xx

Quote:

My name is Harry, I’m 11 years old and I have an incurable brain tumour. When my friend Robert Harley became very ill because of his brain tumour I set up my campaign Help Harry Help Others.
I started making and selling bracelets in the hope that I would raise enough money for brain tumour research so that I could help get my friend better.

Robert was my inspiration and although he died just after I started my campaign, I am determined to continue in his memory. That’s why I’ve teamed up with
Cancer Research UK to help them find a cure for brain tumours.


FOLLOW Harry on TWITTER :  http://twitter.com/#!/harry_moseley

Monday, October 3, 2011

#Stafford #Hospital boss breaks silence over poor care scandal.

Ex-Stafford Hospital chief breaks his silence over scandal
The man behind the Stafford Hospital scandal today broke his two-and-a-half year silence over the affair, claiming he thought of taking his own life.

Former chief executive Martin Yeates gave his account in a 51-page witness statement, seen by the Express & Star ahead of it being read out to the Francis Inquiry today. He was deemed too ill to attend in person.

A defiant Mr Yeates repeatedly claimed the hospital had “turned the corner” and “things were on the up” when the Healthcare Commission’s investigation in 2008 stopped progress “in our tracks”.

The commission reported that hundreds of patients may have died needlessly at the hospital. Mr Yeates, who resigned to avoid disciplinary action in May 2009, portrayed himself and his team as victims, used as a “political football” and hounded by the media and campaigners in what he described as a “genuine living nightmare.”

He said: “My ill-health and genuine consideration of taking my own life on a number of occasions, has been a consequence…of the impact of the investigation, the immediate aftermath and the continued harassment nearly three years after the event.”

The statement made no mention of the first inquiry by Robert Francis QC, the continuing problems in A&E in 2009, or the controversial re-organisation of wards while Mr Yeates was in charge.

In his statement he said he can’t give evidence in person for “medical reasons” but he added: “I hope following receipt of my statement, I will be allowed to move forward with my life.

Read more: http://www.expressandstar.com/news/2011/10/03/ex-stafford-hospital-chief-breaks-his-silence-over-scandal/#ixzz1ZjczlmUY




Saturday, October 1, 2011

#NHS : Ex MP 's War Monger Wife, Mrs. B-LIAR Stands To Gain From NHS Privatisation

The wife of the former Labour prime minister is one of the founders of a business planning to open private clinics in supermarkets.
Her choice of venture is likely to prove controversial among Labour supporters, who will today set out their opposition to greater private involvement in the health system.
Party members jeered at a mention of Tony Blair’s name earlier this week during Ed Miliband’s conference speech.
The company is thought to represent Mrs Blair’s first foray into commerce. It is approaching City financiers just as her husband’s business interests have come under renewed scrutiny.
Mrs Blair was thought to have concentrated on her legal career since he stood down as prime minister in 2007 but she now appears to be seeking to capitalise on Coalition plans to open parts of the NHS to more private sector involvement. ..read more
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8795717/Cherie-Blair-stands-to-gain-from-NHS-privatisation.html

Thursday, September 29, 2011

#cherryorchard: Video showing those trying against ALL odds to keep this old folks home open.

#NHS : Court refuses Family ' Right To Die '

M and others v NHS Primary Healthcare Trust – read judgment
For the first time the courts have been asked to consider whether life-supporting treatment should be withdrawn from a patient who was not in a persistent vegetative state (PVS) but was minimally conscious. The patient’s family sought a declaration for the withdrawal of artificial nutrition and hydration withdrawn and said the woman, referred to as M in court, would not want to live “a life dependent on others”....read moe

http://ukhumanrightsblog.com/2011/09/29/court-refuses-familys-right-to-die/

Monday, September 26, 2011

#NHS #CPS to investigate why it refused to prosecute any of the NHS staff accused of abusing 18 disabled people at day centre

The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) is to investigate why it refused to prosecute any of the NHS staff accused of abusing 18 disabled people at a day centre.

The decision not to bring any charges over the alleged abuse at the Solar Centre in Doncaster was made just three days after the head of the CPS, and a leading chief constable, spoke publicly of their determination to correct their organisations’ past failures in dealing with disability hate crime.

Keir Starmer, the director of public prosecutions, and Stephen Otter, the equality and diversity lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers, spoke out last week at the launch of the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s (EHRC) major report into disability-related harassment.

The report accused public bodies of a “systematic, institutional failure” to recognise such harassment.

The latest decision by the CPS in south Yorkshire follows a three-year battle for justice by families of former users of the day centre.

An internal NHS investigation, which reported in 2008, found evidence of 44 incidents between 2005 and 2007, involving abuse of 18 people with learning difficulties and high support needs.
The report by the trust which runs the day centre, Rotherham Doncaster and South Humber Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust (RDaSH) – which was leaked to the media last year – provides few details of the incidents, although it makes it clear that nine different members of staff claimed they had witnessed abuse.

But Disability News Service (DNS) has seen safeguarding reports into the abuse of two of the 18 service-users, which detail clear evidence against at least three former staff members.
These two reports raise serious questions over why the police and CPS have twice failed to bring any prosecutions against the three members of staff, referred to as “A”, “B” and “C”.
In 2007, South Yorkshire Police investigated allegations of physical assault, but the CPS said there was “insufficient evidence” to bring charges.

Last year, after the RDaSH report was leaked, the force reopened its investigation. This time it investigated possible allegations of ill-treatment under the Mental Health Act, after DNS questioned why such charges were not considered in 2007.

But last week, the force said it had been told by the CPS that there was still “insufficient evidence to proceed” with any charges.

Now, after DNS questioned why no charges were possible when RDaSH appears to have taken at least nine witness statements describing ill-treatment, the CPS has agreed to re-examine its decision.

Martin Goldman, the chief crown prosecutor for Yorkshire and Humberside, has told DNS that his deputy will “look into the issues”.

A CPS spokeswoman said that Naheed Hussain, who is responsible for the South Yorkshire area, would examine whether the statements detailed in the RDaSH report were passed to the CPS by the police....read more

 

#cherryorchard: 'STOP Closing Care Homes You Are KILLING The Elderly !

Strong words from Yvonne Hossack, who has survived a witch - hunt to defend the fate of us ALL, one day we will be old  . Cherry Orchard, another care home to be closed and already those elderly folk who called it 'home' no longer wish to eat, they are afraid ,with good reason , for their fate now lies in the hands of a cold heartless Goverment who have taken it upon themselves to close yet another care home....Sarah Evans said today 'Goverment Euthanasia ? ' ...and I cannot help but agree with her.

This article from Yvonne Hossack 2009...

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-20784384.html

http://therighttodieathomewiththoseilove.blogspot.com/2011/09/cherryorchard-decision-already-causing.html

#cherryorchard : Reaction To The Closing Down of Cherry Orchard Care Home

Residents, friends and relatives have been left bitterly disappointed as Hampshire County Council has chosen to shut down an Andover care home.

Since May, Cherry Orchard on Windsor Road has been threatened with closure and yesterday its fate was sealed after Councillor Felicity Hindson agreed with recommendations to close the home.

The 1970's facility no longer meets modern standards of care and would be too expensive to modernise, that was the message continually put forward at the meeting in Winchester yesterday.

The head of adult social care also repeatedly pointed out that the need for residential places in Hampshire has fallen and that ‘at home' services are the preferred option.

Cherry Orchard will not close until all residents have been found a suitable alternative and Councillor Hindson says there will still be plenty of choice in the town: "It's so important that we offer choice to people, some people will want care at home but some people will be able to move into extra care.

"We have one absolutely new extra care facility in Andover, Lion Oak Court, and this gives people the opportunity to live independently in their own homes and at the same time it has care on site 24 hours a day, 7 days a week."...read more

http://www.andoversound.com/pages/extranet/cherry-orchard-reaction-i-12162.php

#CherryOrchard : Decision already causing old folk to give up on life and refuse food

A local campaign group has promised the fight has only just begun after a decision by Hampshire County Council has left them angry but determined.

On Friday, the authority chose to close the Cherry Orchard care home on Windsor Road.
Residents, friends, family members and others joined together to try and fight the plans - they came up with answers to all the Council's reasons as to why the home needed to close, but it proved not to be enough.

After the announcement decision maker Councillor Felicity Hindson was heckled with phrases like 'shame on you', ‘disgraceful' and ‘there'll be blood on your hands'.

But Sarah Evans who helps run the campaign group says they have a plan: "We have been preparing for some time for this day and basically what we'll now do is explore our legal options with a view to taking this decision further and taking it to court.

"What needs to be resolved is that if Hampshire County Council have made a flawed decision, if their decision is endangering the lives of people and their wellbeing and their health, that needs to be rectified."...read more

#CherryOrchard : Sarah Evans Speaks From The Heart...

sarah evans

Dead proud that this is our lawyer 2 fight 4 (Daily Mail article about Yvonne Hossack)

Follow Sarah on Twitter...



Victory: Lawyer Yvonne Hossack with daughter Ellie

Victory: Lawyer Yvonne Hossack with daughter Ellie
There can be few crusaders as selfless in their pursuit of justice on behalf of the helpless as lawyer Yvonne Hossack.

Her campaign has consumed her life for seven years. It has also brought her to the brink of bankruptcy, jeopardised her health and exerted such intolerable pressure on her personal life that it has ended her 23-year marriage.

She has lost her home, her car, her peace of mind and every penny of her savings. She has worked tirelessly and without remuneration on behalf of clients who would otherwise not have a voice.

She estimates, had she charged for her services, she would today be as much as £2million better off.
Yvonne, 53, has prolonged the lives of thousands of vulnerable and frail people in care homes. Indeed, she has saved at least 80 homes from closure by representing their residents.
Her success came through forcing councils to consider that the effects on those being relocated when a home closed are so traumatic they can prove fatal.

Yet this selfless woman has been the subject of an extraordinary witch hunt, which ended yesterday in the 'miracle' of her acquittal on charges of breaching rules of solicitors' conduct.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-1214566/Lawyer-victimised-saving-80-care-homes-tells-ready-lose-win-dignity-elderly.html#ixzz1Z4qsdROc

#NHS:Royal Marsden Denies Cuts

Thursday, September 22, 2011

#savecherryorchard : Cherry Orchard Meeting.

It's less than 24 hours until Hampshire County Council decide the fate of an Andover Care Home.

Cherry Orchard on Windsor Road is being threatened with closure and a formal announcement will be made tomorrow.

Campaigners have expressed concerns that a decision has already been made but will be at the meeting to make a final plea and present a petition with over 4,000 signatures opposing the closure.

A 13 week consultation was held after a decision to close the home was announced in May, but Save Cherry Orchard Campaigner Mary Burke - whose father is currently a resident - thinks it's been on the cards for a while: "They haven't updated it, they've left it for a long long while because they knew what they wanted to do with this home, although they deny it they've known for a long long while that this was going to be closed....read more

http://www.andoversound.com/pages/extranet/cherry-orchard-meeting-i-12130.php

Wednesday, September 21, 2011

Terminally ill patients told their benefits may be cut

Disability campaigners criticise government for sending out letters about welfare reform bill, which has not yet been passed
A Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said working could give terminally ill people 'a sense of being useful'. Photograph: Kirsty Wigglesworth/PA
 
The government has been criticised by disability campaigners for warning some terminally ill patients that their benefits may be cut from next April if its welfare reform bill, which has not yet passed all its parliamentary stages, is enacted later this year.

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is sending letters to claimants saying the contributory employment support allowance (ESA) will be time-limited to one year for people deemed capable of returning to employment, meaning those already receiving the benefit could lose their financial help in six months' time.

The provision is included in the bill, which has still to go to the House of Lords for scrutiny.
Neil Coyle, the Disability Alliance's director of policy, said: "The impact of cutting support will be devastating for people already told they only have a limited time left to live. Many will have worked for years and will feel they deserve a little support in return until they pass away.
"The government has time to change its plans before terminally-ill people and their families have this avoidable and quite nasty cut imposed."

The alliance claims that 700,000 people will eventually be affected by the change in support, and alleges that 400,000 would have to lose all support if the government is to meet its target of cutting the welfare bill by £2bn. Liberal Democrat delegates voted against the imposition of time limits at their party conference earlier this week.

But the DWP insisted the terminally ill would not lose the allowance if they were unfit to work, and said the 12-month time limit was intended to act as an incentive for those capable of returning to "work-related activity". Those assessed as in need of support because of illness or family circumstances would continue to receive the allowance, it added.

A spokesman said: "It will depend on the individual's capacity to work. Everyone will be assessed on an individual basis and if the decision is that they are able to start the journey back to work there will be a time limit.

"Speaking of terminal illness is clearly emotive and if they are on their deathbed they will clearly not be going back to work, but if someone is not in that position they may be able to lead a normal life which could involve work. The process of working may even be helpful in giving them a sense of being useful and prolonging their lives.

"There is no benefit or advantage in just cutting the ESA. It is not some arbitrary target."
The spokesman said the letters were being sent out in advance of the legislation being passed in order to give claimants maximum warning of the possible change.

"It would be completely wrong not to alert people well in advance that there is a possibility that their benefit entitlement may change. From next April people in the work-related activity group will only be able to claim ESA for a year, to bring it into line with other benefits. ESA is not designed for people to claim for the long term unless they are in the support group.

"We must ensure that the benefit system has to be fair to taxpayers as well as disabled people."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2011/sep/21/terminally-ill-told-benefits-cut

#NHS #torymurder : Terminally ill warned over health cuts

Thousands of terminally-ill people have begun receiving letters warning them their benefits could be cut in April, even though Parliament has yet to approve the changes.

Under proposals in the Welfare Bill, which is being scrutinised in the Lords, contributory Employment Support Allowance will be time-limited to 12 months from April 2012.

The change will be retrospective, so people who have received the payments for 12 months or more when the rule comes into force will have their benefit cut immediately.

Earlier this week, delegates at the Liberal Democrat conference in Birmingham passed a motion calling on their MPs to oppose the "arbitrary" time limit and the plans are likely to face stiff opposition in the Lords.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-14999755?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

#savecherryorchard :Campaigners to lobby County Council on ‘decision Friday’

SCOCH condemns ‘heartless’ tactics as elderly residents again left in tears
RELATIVES AND  supporters of elderly residents at Cherry Orchard Care Home will lobby Hampshire County Council from 1.15pm on Friday (September 23) to demand a reprieve for the threatened Andover facility.

 Save Cherry Orchard Care Home (SCOCH) members will deliver a 4,000-signature petition to Felicity Hindson, HCC’s executive member for adult social care, when she sits at 2pm on Friday, and is urging supporters to mount a dignified lobby before the meeting.

The call comes as campaigners reveal that residents have once more been left shocked and in tears following unannounced visits by HCC staff who told residents that the council’s recommendation is that Cherry Orchard should close.

The campaign is planning a legal challenge should the council go ahead with its already stated intention to close the home on grounds that SCOCH describes as baseless.....read more

http://savecherryorchard.wordpress.com/

Thursday, September 8, 2011

#NHS :The end of the #NHS as we know it, by Colin Leys

NHS hospital Birmingham
The A&E area of Birmingham Heartlands Hospital. Photograph: David Sillitoe for the Guardian
 
What Wednesday's vote on the health and social care bill shows more clearly than anything is that many, if not most, of the political elite no longer care whether they are carrying out the wishes of the electorate, and barely pretend that we are any longer a democracy.

The prime minister promised before the 2010 election not to introduce any "top-down reorganisations" of the NHS; to say he, Andrew Lansley and Nick Clegg lack an electoral mandate for the bill is an understatement. It is also an understatement to say that they have not told the truth about the bill's intentions, and that they have reduced Department of Health statements, such as its latest so-called MythBuster document, to a level of brazen mendacity that demeans a once great office of state.

The principle seems to be that if an official lie – such as that the bill does not imply privatisation – is repeated often enough, most people will feel it must be true. And by using existing powers to abolish PCTs and set up "pathfinder" so-called GP consortia, and making arrangements with foreign private companies to take over NHS hospitals, the government has also pre-empted such debate as MPs are inclined to have. The Conservative MP Dr Sarah Wollaston, who originally denounced the bill, now says that changes have already gone too far to oppose it any further – a remarkable statement of political impotence.

The bill will end the NHS as a comprehensive service equally available to all. People with limited means will have a narrowing range of free services of declining quality, and will once again face long waits for elective care.

Everyone else will go back to trying to find money for private insurance and private care. More and more NHS hospital beds will be occupied by private patients. Doctors will be divided into a few who will become rich, and many who will end up working on reduced terms and with little professional freedom for large corporations (the staff of the hospitals that are being considered for handing over to private firms will have noted that the firms in question want "a free hand with staff").

The costs of market-based healthcare – from making and monitoring multiple and complex contracts, to advertising, billing, auditing, legal disputes, multimillion pound executive salaries, dividends and fraud – will soon consume 20% or more of the health budget, as they do in the US. Neither the Care Quality Commission nor NHS Protect (the former NHS Counter-Fraud Unit) are remotely resourced enough, or empowered enough, to prevent the decline of care quality and the scale of financial fraud that the bill will introduce.

What we are witnessing is the completion of a project begun some 25 years ago to restore healthcare to private enterprise. The key players have not been MPs but private healthcare companies and consultancies like McKinsey and KPMG. The war has been waged by the lavish corporate funding of pro-market thinktanks – the quiet subversion of some of those, like the King's Fund, that are still rather quaintly described as "independent" – and the deep penetration of the Department of Health and Labour's senior ranks. No countervailing argument has come from pro-public thinktanks, because none exists with resources equal to the task. And how many MPs have actually read through the bill they are in the process of endorsing, or even the explanatory notes that accompany it?

The one serious obstacle to the bill's promoters has been the impact of social media: 38 Degrees, Facebook, expert bloggers and tweeters. Along with the million-plus people who work for the NHS, a steadily growing portion of, especially, younger voters, have been exposed to a different narrative and see through the spin. At the moment most of them may be more cynical than politically active. But if the bill becomes law and the reality begins to be felt in people's daily lives it is this counter-narrative that will make sense. MPs – and now the Lords – would be well advised to ponder the implications of this.

 

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

#NHS David #Cameron 100% full proof liar !

You're a liar, David Cameron. A full blown 100% flagrant liar. I've got the proof here.
http://twitpic.com/6hgsqm

#NHS: Letter to a Tory MP about the health bill.

Subject: Health and Social Care Bill

Dear Mr Harrington

You are doubtless aware of the grave damage the enactment of the proposed Lansley legislation will do, not only to the NHS which is held in such affection and regard by the public at large, but also to the image and reputation of the Conservative Party.  The full impact of the destruction of the present NHS, still seeking to offer a patient-centred, coordinated and collaborative service, and its replacement with a disintegrated, competitive, market-driven parody of the dreadful US commercial system will be only too apparent when the next General Election comes around.

It is particularly revealing to me to note the Prime Minister’s treachery to an NHS to the superb performance of which he has so often and so fulsomely paid tribute in the past.  I have had the good fortune to spend the whole of my professional life working in what has been a morally rewarding organisation with the simple goal of doing as much good as was possible for the public it served.  Along with the great majority of my doctor and nurse colleagues I totally repudiate the government assertion, based upon zero evidence, that the provision of care for the sick and the prevention of disease in the community will be better driven by a business ethic with its commercial bottom line.

To me this Bill is a democratic deception which the government, without mandate, is inflicting on the British public.  You know full well, despite subsequent weasel words, that nothing of this sort was set before the public at the Election.  But it also an historical tragedy that, out of ideological spite, the destruction of a great and successful social enterprise will be the indelible legacy of your Party.

As my representative in Parliament, I call on you to oppose this act of politically inspired vandalism with all possible force

Yours sincerely

Harry Keen

Professor Harry Keen CBE MD FRCP
Unit for Metabolic Medicine
Diabetes & Endocrine Clinical Unit
3
rd floor, Southwark Wing
Guy’s Hospital Campus, KCL, London SE1 9RT


http://abetternhs.wordpress.com/2011/09/05/letter-to-a-tory-mp-about-the-health-bill/

Monday, September 5, 2011

We Need Toothpaste: A loving caring blog , daughter takes care of mum who suffers from dementia and their day to day lives.

#NHS errors in care of dying man (video)

A confidential report into the care of a dying, elderly man on an NHS ward has found a catalogue of failings.
Parkinson’s disease sufferer Ken Rasheed, 80, was admitted to the Godstone ward at East Surrey Hospital last autumn following a stroke, and was secretly filmed by Channel 4's Dispatches.

The documentary, made by Hardcash, revealed systemic failures at East Surrey Hospital; it says Rasheed was not fed properly, occasionally not given his medication, and that some staff there were not always trained adequately.

Channel 4 News has seen a copy of the report ordered by the hospital management following the documentary's broadcast.

Referring the feeding of Rasheed, it says: "Oral feeds problems were not robustly identified when the patient's intake first reduced," adding: "Additionally, when concerns about oral feeding and swallowing were identified by staff and the patient's family, a multi-disciplinary assessment of the reasons for his poor intake was not conducted."

The report also states that medical notes were written, claiming that Mr Rasheed had gained in weight, even though it is now claimed this could not have been possible.
An attitude that if you reach a certain age, and you are not well, we are not going to give you time and dignity - Tamina Rashell
It was because Mr Rasheed's family were so concerned about his treatment following his relocation to Godstone ward, that they agreed to the secret filming.

His daughter, Tamina Rashell, told Channel 4 News she had told staff that her father was having trouble swallowing.

"From day one, there was cheese sandwiches sitting there. And I said ‘why have you put cheese sandwiches, he needs soft, moist food.’ In the end we would pack soft food to give to him," she said.

Before he was moved to Godstone ward, the report says, Mr Rasheed was assessed as needing to be restricted to thickened fluids.

This assessment does not appear to have been passed to Godstone ward.
There were also major problems with the administering of Mr Rasheed’s medication, according to the report. It was missed entirely on a number of occasions and there were doses not signed for or accounted for.

As a result of those inconsistencies, Mr Rashid’s Parkinson's condition - which had been controlled for 15 years - deteriorated.

He began to suffer from fits, and the report notes a further failure: doctors were not always called.

It states: "The patient did not always receive his PD (Parkinson's Disease) medication and anti-seizure medications at the prescribed frequency."
It adds that the medications were not switched to liquid form 'in a timely way'.

The report does say - and Mr Rasheed’s family agrees - that he received excellent care when he was first admitted to the hospital: it was only when he was moved to Godstone ward that the litany of errors began.

"What I witnessed was what appeared to be an attitude that if you reach a certain age, and you are not well, we are not going to give you time and dignity. It was a value judgement," Ms Rashell said.

She added that in her opinion, her father had effectively starved to death, despite the best efforts of his family to feed him, although the report does not share the conclusion.

In a statement, the Chief Executive of Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust, Michael Wilson, said: “Like everyone, I was saddened by the Dispatches programme on end of life care. We asked an independent chair to lead a review and have shared the results of the investigation with the patient’s wife to whom we have also extended our sincerest apologies. Out of respect for her wishes we are unable to comment on the patient’s individual care.”

On Monday, the charity Age UK announced a joint initiative with the Local Government Association (LGA) and the NHS Confederation on dignity in care.

http://www.channel4.com/news/catalogue-of-nhs-errors-in-care-of-dying-man

Sunday, September 4, 2011

#Dorries:Case study: One woman’s story of having an abortion under existing rules.Take Action! Contact your MP ahead of the debate on 5th/6th using either the templates from Abortion Rights or FPA to urge them to oppose these amendments.

#Dorries:The ‘Dr Death’ slur against Dr Evan Harris by Sunny Hundal.

The editor of ConservativeHome, Tim Montgomerie, likes to style himself as the leader of the moderate, conservative movement in the UK. But his nastiness is increasingly on show with the upcoming abortion vote.

For the past few days, his website has been referring to Dr Evan Harris as ‘Dr Death’ – picking up the slur frequently parroted by Nadine Dorries MP.

In his article for the Telegraph today, Tim Montgomerie repeats it again.

Keep this in mind: the ‘nickname’ isn’t widely at all, except by some internet commenters, and mostly by Nadine Dorries. Christina Odone did use it but as stopped as far as I can tell. The Daily Mail columnist Gerri Peev used it in the past but apparently apologised for it afterwards.

It was the Daily Mail that first made the slur prominent here.
That article refers to Dr Evan Harris as ‘Dr Death’, and to his Jewish origins...  article in full at Sunny's blog.

http://liberalconspiracy.org/2011/09/04/dr-evan-harris-and-dr-death/