Author Archives: wendy

Now is the time to create a combined health and social care system

4th September 2014

Merging two leaky buckets does not provide a watertight solution.

NHS England’s chief executive, Simon Stevens, recently told the Health Select Committee that merging two leaky buckets does not provide a watertight solution. It is for this reason that the growing problems in the NHS and social care cannot be solved by the Better Care Fund or any of the other short-term solutions on offer. Nothing less than a fundamental reform of the funding of health and social care services and citizens’ entitlements to publicly funded support is required to address these problems.

The torment of trying to be a good granny AND a dutiful daughter

Top author Rosie Staal says women like her are in despair

  • 92-year-old mother Jean is beset by Alzheimer’s, breast cancer, hearing loss and poor sight 
  • Rosie longs to spend more time with grandsons Joe, 5 and Zach, 3, and her two-year-old granddaughter Poppy
  • Women over 60 make up nearly a third of all hospital admissions for anxiety – juggling caring for elderly parents, grandchildren and ageing or ill partners
  • Rosie worries she is also neglecting her husband David 

By Rosie Staal

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On the train heading home to Dorset from London last week, I leaned my head against the cold window, closed my eyes and savoured a rare moment to draw breath.

After spending three days with my grandsons Joe, five, and Zach, three, I could still hear their joyful voices in my ears and feel their trusting little hands in mine.

Turning my back as they wave goodbye haunts me after every visit, causing a physical jolt to my heart.

Now UN sparks fury after launching human rights investigation into Britain’s disability benefit reforms

UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities has opened probe

  • Will check if there has been ‘grave violations’ of rights of disabled people 
  • MPs tonight branded the investigation ‘politically motivated’
  • Earlier this year a group of UN ‘ambassadors’ attacked UK welfare reforms

By Jack Doyle for the Daily Mail

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The United Nations sparked fury today after launching an unprecedented inquiry into Britain’s treatment of the disabled.

The UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities launched a formal probe into whether this country has committed ‘grave or systemic violations’ of the rights of disabled people.