Monthly Archives: March 2013

NHS 111 phone number sparks concern

NHS 111 phone number sparks concern

By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online

Doctors are questioning the safety of a new non-emergency NHS telephone advice line launching in England.

The 111 service, replacing NHS Direct, is being piloted in many regions but has proved problematic, with some callers left on hold for hours.

Dr Laurence Buckman, the British Medical Association’s GP committee chair, says wider rollout should be stalled.

The Department of Health says it is giving some areas extra time.

It has already sanctioned an extension of up to six months of the original 1 April 2013 deadline for regions struggling to set up the new service.

Wonderful volunteers helping the sick and carers stuck in the snow

Volunteers help nurses reach critically ill patients

22 March 2013
Snow response in north Wales

As heavy weather causes disruption across the UK, our volunteers are helping nurses reach critically ill patients and delivering vital medication through the snow.

Following a call-out from health officials in North Wales, Red Cross emergency response teams are currently using Land Rover 4×4 vehicles to provide help in very challenging circumstances.

One team is battling through the blustery conditions to ensure nurses can continue to reach – and treat – the critically ill in their own homes. Another Land Rover is being used to run vital insulin supplies to the homes of patients.

Toyah Willcox heartbreaking story of her beloved mum

Toyah Willcox: Doctors put my mother on ‘death pathway’ without telling me

Toyah Willcox, the singer and actress, has spoken of her shock at learning that doctors had placed her elderly mother on the controversial Liverpool Care Pathway.

Toyah Willcox, the singer and actress Photo: ROGER TAYLOR

7:09AM GMT 25 Mar 2013

Miss Willcox said she was not consulted about the decision to withdraw life–saving treatment.

She said she overheard a nurse tell her 81-year-old mother: “It’s all right Barbara, the end is near.”

The singer said she had wanted to support her mother when she was told she was being put on the Liverpool Care Pathway, which involves withdrawing invasive treatments or tests from patients in their final days and hours in order to ease their suffering.

Her mother, who had been suffering from cancer, died in her sleep in September 2011, a week after being admitted to St Richard’s Hospice in Worcester.