Monthly Archives: April 2012

NHS reforms: what do they mean for patients?

It is difficult to gauge what effects the Health and Social Care Act will have, and potential gains are mostly unreliable

 

The top request of National Voices members was for the integration of health and social care.

It is difficult to predict what effect the new Health and Social Care Act will have on patients, service users and carers. The bill was like a giant treatment decision, with the benefits uncertain and the risks considerable.

National Voices, a coalition of health and social care charities, has found it impossible, during the last year, to gauge accurately how the act’s provisions would affect direct patient care and treatment. Hence there could be no simple “for or against” position on the bill – but there was a lot of pushing to improve it.

Among members of National Voices, the strongest concerns have been that: localisation will exacerbate inequalities and social exclusion; gains from successful national strategies and frameworks will be at risk; and the needs of patients with less common conditions will not be identified and responded to by GP commissioners with low awareness.

Doctors ‘too slow’ diagnosing dementia

Doctors in parts of the country are not diagnosing dementia early enough and must be better trained in order to improve treatment, the head of Britain’s largest biomedical research charity has said.

By , Science Correspondent

7:09AM BST 02 Apr 2012

Sir Mark Walport said the “unacceptable” variation in diagnosis rates in different regions was one of the first problems that the government must tackle in its new drive to improve dementia care.

Doctors’ effectiveness at spotting dementia varies dramatically across the country, with just 37 per cent of sufferers in the south west receiving a diagnosis compared with 46 per cent in the north east and almost 70 per cent in parts of Northern Ireland, according to Alzheimer’s Society figures based on NHS data.

UK is breaching human rights of disabled, UN told

A SCOTTISH campaigner will this morning tell the Human Rights Council of the UN that the UK Government is in breach of its human rights obligations to disabled people.

Stephen Naysmith
Social affairs correspondent

In Geneva today, Dr Pauline Nolan, Policy Officer for Inclusion Scotland, will submit evidence to a preliminary hearing ahead of a planned review of the human rights record of 14 states, including the UK.

On behalf of the Campaign for A Fair Society – a coalition of more than 70 Scottish charities – Dr Nolan will warn the cumulative impact of welfare reform and cuts to benefits affecting disabled people will mean their ability to live a full life is impaired. In particular, she will argue that welfare changes undermine their right to be included in the community.

The campaign also claims disabled people are being denied access to justice when they try to appeal against these cuts to their benefits.