Author Archives: wendy

£37K lottery grant will help carers

April 4, 2012   Carers, health

A charity that supports adult carers in Bracknell Forest has been awarded a Big Lottery grant of nearly £38,000.

By Laura Herbert
April 04, 2012

Bracknell Forest Voluntary Action (BVFA) provide services for unpaid adult carers in the borough, and successfully secured the grant for its Carers Support Team.

The team, which is part-funded by Bracknell Forest Council, has received grants from the Big Lottery fund for the past four years.

Money from the Big Lottery fund pays for a carers information and advice worker whose role is to support unpaid carers by offering information and directing them to other agencies or groups that could help.

The role also has links with GP surgeries and hospitals to highlight the needs of carers with health services.

Read More

NHS patients encouraged to give feedback about care on revamped website

April 3, 2012   Carers, hospital, internet

Patients in Shetland are being encouraged to write about their experiences of health care, good and bad, on NHS Shetland’s revamped website which has just gone live.

April 3rd, 2012 by

In future some patients and carers may be invited to tell their stories on tape, video or in person to the NHS board, which manages health services in Shetland.

The new independent feedback system, called Patient Opinion, started in a low-key way in January, prompting only six responses so far by email, phone and letter. Five were complimentary and the other conveyed ideas for improvements.

Patient Opinion is a non-profit service independent of NHS Shetland and the NHS which confidentially handles each “story” about a person’s experience of the NHS, including what was good and what could have been better.

Read More

NHS reforms: what do they mean for patients?

April 3, 2012   Carers, hospital, ukcuts

It is difficult to gauge what effects the Health and Social Care Act will have, and potential gains are mostly unreliable

 

The top request of National Voices members was for the integration of health and social care.

It is difficult to predict what effect the new Health and Social Care Act will have on patients, service users and carers. The bill was like a giant treatment decision, with the benefits uncertain and the risks considerable.

National Voices, a coalition of health and social care charities, has found it impossible, during the last year, to gauge accurately how the act’s provisions would affect direct patient care and treatment. Hence there could be no simple “for or against” position on the bill – but there was a lot of pushing to improve it.

Among members of National Voices, the strongest concerns have been that: localisation will exacerbate inequalities and social exclusion; gains from successful national strategies and frameworks will be at risk; and the needs of patients with less common conditions will not be identified and responded to by GP commissioners with low awareness.

Read More