Category Archives: ukcuts

NHS and social care ‘at breaking point’, medics and charities warn

October 6, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, ukcuts

The NHS and social care services are “at breaking point”, a group of leading medical groups and charities have said.

6 October 2014 Last updated at 03:38

Writing in the Independent, they said the NHS had been through its “longest and most damaging budget squeeze” ever.

The letter says patient care and staff morale have suffered, adding: “Things cannot go on like this.”

It is addressed to the leaders of the Conservatives, Labour and the Liberal Democrats – all three parties have made major NHS pledges in recent days.

Leading figures from the British Medical Association, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Midwives, the Alzheimer’s Society, the Teenage Cancer Trust and the Faculty of Public Health are among those who have signed the letter.

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‘Cuts forcing English councils to limit social care’

September 14, 2014   Carers, Featured Article, Older care, Social care, ukcuts

95-year-old Cyril Gillam no longer gets home help visits

14 September 2014 Last updated at 03:44

Almost 90% of councils in England no longer offer social care to people whose needs are ranked low to moderate, the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) has said.

The group is warning cuts are making the care system “unsustainable”.

The government says councils have been given an extra £1.1bn to help protect social care this year.

But charities say hundreds of thousands of people are struggling without help.

When someone applies for social care, their needs are determined as either critical, substantial, moderate or low.

In recent years the number of councils able to help those at the lower end of the scale has gone down as they struggle to balance their budgets.

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New research says many carers have reached ‘breaking point’

September 11, 2014   Carers, ukcuts

Carers are “pushed to the brink,”

First published 01:35 Thursday 11 September 2014 in Bradford Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Photograph of the Author by Rob Lowson, T&A Reporter

MANY people acting as carers for older or disabled loved ones have reached “breaking point”, new research has revealed.

A study of more than 5,000 carers by the charity Carers UK has found that six out of ten are being “pushed to the brink,” with a quarter requiring some form of medical treatment due to their role, 63 per cent suffering from depression, and 79 per cent from some form of anxiety.

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