Monthly Archives: November 2012
‘Pay £80 more or go into a home’
Anne Fisher has seen her home-care fees go from £18 a week to £134
By Karen Jordan
November 27, 2012
A 90-year-old Second World War veteran has been told she must cover a more than 600 per cent increase in her home care costs or go into a nursing home.
Anne Fisher, from The Coombe in Streatley, who operated aircraft searchlights in the war, does not want to leave her home of 60 years.
But with just £8,000 in savings and a state and widow’s pension to live on, her son Chris says she cannot afford to pay the latest increase in charges from West Berkshire Council.
Mr Fisher, 53, was devastated to receive a letter last week from the local authority saying his mother had to pay an additional £80 per week – from £54 to £134 – if she wanted to continue to be cared for at home.
Mr Fisher, who lives with his mother but can’t care for her full time as he needs to continue his work as a postman, said: “Where is she supposed to get this extra money from?
Review into ‘end-of-life’ care
26 November 2012 Last updated at 18:18
The Liverpool Care Pathway has been designed to alleviate unnecessary suffering at the end of life
The Liverpool Care Pathway has come under intense scrutiny recently, with claims that some hospitals are abusing its use to cut costs.
Medics say the pathway helps patients avoid unnecessary interventions.
Care and Support Minister Norman Lamb said he would appoint an independent chair to report back in the new year.
Mr Lamb said: “Care for the dying is an emotive issue and is never an easy subject to discuss.
ME isn’t 'all in the mind’, but it’s still a mystery
As medical adviser to the ME Association and an ME sufferer, Dr Charles Shepherd has spent the past two decades vigorously fighting the dismissive attitude still common among the medical profession. Here, he talks about the latest research into the disorder
By Caroline Lavender
7:30AM GMT 26 Nov 2012
It was in the late Seventies that Charles Shepherd became ill with myalgic encephalomyelitis, or ME as it is better known. It was an era, he recalls, when the condition was still dismissed as “hysterical nonsense” by most clinicians. Working as a young doctor at Cirencester Hospital, he had contracted a severe case of chickenpox from a patient with shingles. “I’d been perfectly fit and healthy. The infection had resolved but I felt mentally and physically knackered and kept having to take more and more time off,” he recalls.
