Monthly Archives: March 2012
Hospital consultants should consider working weekends
Hospital doctors told to rethink weekend working
By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News
Hospital consultants should consider working weekends to cut the spike in deaths, a doctors’ leader says.
Dr Mark Porter, the British Medical Association’s consultants chairman, said the mounting evidence about the problem meant it was time for doctors to put themselves forward if needed.
He said it would not be necessary for every speciality or hospital, but it needed to be looked at case-by-case.
There is a wealth of research into higher mortality rates at weekends.
At the end of last year, the research company Dr Foster found mortality rates rose by 10% at weekends. Other studies have shown similar correlations.
Staffing – and in particular the presence or absence of senior doctors – has been highlighted as a key factor.
3 million could benefit from ‘doctor by broadband’ by 2017, claims minister
Some three million patients could be consulting their doctors and managing their health conditions online by 2017, saving the NHS £1.2 billion, Paul Burstow, the Care Services Minister, has claimed.
By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent
Although few have heard of ‘telehealth’ and ‘telecare’, ministers are keen to increase use of these technologies, allow people with long term conditions like heart disease, diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD) to manage their illness largely from home.
‘Telehealth’ systems enable patients to submit vital signs like blood pressure and glucose levels, and view treatment plans, to be interpreted remotely by doctors, meaning individuals do not have to constantly attend hospital appointments.
Study shows 600,000 pensioners are prisoners in own homes
More than 600,000 pensioners are virtual prisoners in their own homes, passing their front door less than once a week at most, a study of the everyday lives of older people shows.
By John Bingham, Social Affairs Editor
8:00AM GMT 08 Mar 2012
Research by Age UK paints a stark picture of the growing isolation of many elderly people at a time when services seen as a lifeline by many, such as local bus routes or Post Offices, are being cut.
It shows how the daily lives of more than one-in-20 pensioners in the UK are marked by acute loneliness.
