Tag Archives: Wales

Low palliative care use across Wales highlighted

Elderly people with cancer were less likely to get palliative care than younger ones

Less than half of people who died from cancer and only 5% of those dying from other conditions received specialist palliative care, a report has found.

The Marie Curie charity and the Bevan Foundation looked at figures from 2012, which also showed one in four hospital beds were used by patients in their last year of life in Wales

Older terminally ill people were much less likely to have palliative care.

Housing benefit reforms 'could waste millions' in disability costs

Wales & West Housing (WWH) said many disabled tenants may be forced to move because of the so-called “bedroom tax”

Changes in housing benefit payments affecting disabled people could cost the public purse millions of pounds in Wales, a housing association has said.

Wales & West Housing (WWH) said many disabled tenants may be forced to move because of the so-called “bedroom tax”.

It said it could result in millions more being spent adapting properties.

The UK government said it had given Wales £7.9m for a discretionary fund tenants could apply for but WWH said that may not be enough to cover costs.

Meanwhile, Welsh government said it was providing a further £1.3m so local authorities could provide more help to those affected by the reforms.

WWH, which manages 9,500 properties, said it wanted disabled people to be exempt from the housing reforms.

“Start Quote

The cost of new adaptations wipes out the potential savings in housing benefit for many years”

Shayne Hembrow Wales & West Housing

It said Wales was on track to “waste” millions of pounds of public money otherwise.

Few carers will get Christmas break

A NEW survey by disabled charity Vitalise has revealed that two thirds of carers will not get a break from caring this Christmas. 

The figures show that four out of ten out carers have not had any time off from caring in past year and 39 percent of carers have not taken a single day off from caring in the last year.

More than 80 percent said they put the health of the loved one they care for before of their own health and almost 60 percent said a lack of time away from caring led them to feelings of depression.