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Half of hospitals still treating patients in mixed wards
Half of hospitals still treating patients in mixed wards
Half of hospitals are still treating patients in mixed-sex wards as managers struggle to eradicate the practice before they start receiving fines.
By Martin Beckford, Health Correspondent 6:30AM GMT 18 Feb 2011
Official data show that 72 out of 144 acute trusts that provided figures treated men and women in the same wards in January, up from 70 out of 147 the previous month.
In total there were 8,160 incidences of patients of different sexes sharing wards last month.
Although this represents a fall on December’s figure of 11,362, it means managers are still battling to end the practice before a tough new regime is introduced.
From April, hospitals in England will face fines of £250 for each breach of the rules, which will be recorded on wards by computers and sent through the NHS management system.
Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, said: “It is incredibly alarming that 50 per cent of hospitals are still providing mixed sex accommodation despite the Government’s commitment for this practice to stop by April.
NHS elderly care: sole carer coughing blood sent home
NHS elderly care: sole carer coughing blood sent home
Hundreds of Daily Telegraph readers have contacted the newspaper, offering examples of just how badly the NHS is failing elderly people. Here is one:
By Andy Bloxham 8:00AM GMT 16 Feb 2011
Retired accountant John Williams, 80, is the sole carer for his wife Grace, 71, who suffers from Alzheimer’s.
Last Saturday, Mr Williams, a former football referee and cricket umpire, began coughing up blood and mucus and was taken to West Wales General Hospital in Carmarthen.
He was given an X-ray which showed “shadows” on his lungs but was told to wait overnight to be seen by a specialist.
By this time, Mr Williams had developed constipation which became increasingly uncomfortable. When, at around 4am on Sunday he requested a suppository, it did not arrive until around 11am, seven hours later.
The specialist, who Mr Williams said claimed to have already seen 50 patients during the weekend, told him he needed further tests but would have to wait three weeks, and he was discharged
Fighting back tears, Mr Williams told the Daily Telegraph: “I’m 80 years old and I’m coughing up blood every day. It’s getting worse not better. I was told to wait three weeks but I might not last three weeks.
“I’m going to be dead before long. Then my wife won’t have anybody to look after her.
“I’m the only person she’s got. I sort out all her pills. If I’m not there, she gets confused and takes the wrong ones. Last time, she ended up in hospital.
“I just feel that I’m dying and no one cares. I’m sure I’ve got pneumonia – I’ve had it before.
“Not everyone’s bad at the hospital: some of the girls are nice but you ask some of them to do something and they just walk away.
“I don’t want to die – I just want to be treated.”
No one from Carmarthenshire NHS Trust, which runs the West Wales hospital, was available for comment.
Carers’ manifesto gives candidates a yellow card
Carers’ manifesto gives candidates a yellow card
Monday February 14 2011
A mother who cares for her severely disabled son round the clock has become the public face of a ‘yellow card’ campaign targeting election candidates.
Alison McKim, from Terenure in Dublin, who looks after her son Zach (19), has fronted the campaign in a bid to highlight the plight of the country’s 160,000 carers.
“Zach is totally dependent. He was born with with cerebral palsy, is blind and suffers from seizures,” said Alison at the pre-election manifesto launch by the Carers’ Association.
She had only managed to get a few hours’ sleep the night before.
“Zach got quite chesty at about 10pm last night and I had to give him nebulisers and chest physiotherapy.
“By the time he was settled back it was 1.30am and he was awake at 4.30am this morning, suffering a couple of seizures.
“Thankfully they were not too bad and we got him back to sleep at 5.30am and we were back up again at 6.30am to get him up and ready for the day, giving medications and spoon feeding.”
Alison is reliant on the carers’ allowance of €204 a week but that was cut by €8 in the Budget.
She is thankful to the Carers’ Association for providing some hours respite every week but sometimes those 12 hours are the only time she can leave the house.
The yellow cards have been distributed across the country and feature Alison and Zach with a simple message: Act now for Ireland‘s invisible workforce.
Carers have been given a list of questions to put to candidates in advance of the election.
Enda Egan, the organisation’s chief executive, appealed to candidates to call to carers’ doors as so many are housebound.
The carers are also mounting their first virtual campaign which involves pictures of themselves holding up messages which can be uploaded and sent to www.carersireland.com. They are emailed to candidates.
Some of the poignant messages so far underline the carers’ despair.
One woman says: “Slave labour — do you work for less than €1 an hour?”
Another young girl looking after a relative simply says: “All work, no play.”
Mr Egan said family carers felt badly let down despite promises to protect the most vulnerable in society.
He said they had been the victims of harsh cuts and much reduced support services.
http://www.independent.ie/health/carers-manifesto-gives-candidates-a-yellow-card-2538860.html
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