Monthly Archives: January 2014

Prince Charles: good food in hospitals should be a priority

Prince Charles said ‘food is a medicine in itself’ and called for greater emphasis on good quality hospital meals

By Alice Philipson

7:06AM GMT 31 Jan 2014

Prince Charles wants the NHS to see “food as a medicine in itself”, claiming better hospital meals would speed up recovery times.

He called for the quality of food served by the NHS to be made a “clinical priority” and said long-overdue changes could have benefits in other areas of health care such as malnutrition among the elderly.

It comes less than a month after the Telegraph disclosed that more than one in three hospital trusts have cut spending on patients’ meals in the past year.

Some hospitals are now spending as little as 69p on each meal, according to Department of Health figures, with meals at one trust described as “worse than prison”.

Peanut allergy clinics to open in Britain

British scientists are celebrating a major breakthrough in the treatment of potentially deadly peanut allergies

3:49PM GMT 30 Jan 2014

Children can be protected from the dangerous effects of peanut allergy by slowly building up their tolerance, research has shown.

After six months of the therapy, up to 90 per cent of allergic children taking part in a study could safely eat five peanuts a day.

Peanut allergy, which affects one in 50 children, can lead to anaphylactic shock – a potentially fatal immune reaction. It is the most common cause of deaths due to food allergies.

‘Wealth of the Web’ Report Launched

27 January 2014

Age UK London Calls for More to be Done to Help Get Older Londoners Online

Age UK London has today launched a report outlining recommendations for getting more of the 2.1 million older people in London online.

78% of Londoners aged over 75 are not online and a total of 661,000 people over the age of 55 in London have never used the internet; Wealth of the Web: Broadening Horizons Online tackles the issue of how to decrease these figures. Specific recommendations are made for older people themselves, the Age UK London Network, voluntary sector organisations, regional and local government, funders and those in the private sector.

The report looks at the obstacles to older people being online, which range from lack of interest to financial cost and lack of training and support as well as the drivers behind getting older people online which include family support and specific interests and hobbies.