Category Archives: Carers

MS hope from 'off-the-shelf' drugs

July 17, 2013   Carers, Multiple Sclerosis
17 July 2013 Last updated at 07:44

MS hope from ‘off-the-shelf’ drugs

By Helen Briggs BBC News

 MS can cause problems with walking and balance

Existing drugs for motor neurone disease, asthma and heart disease are being tested as possible treatments for advanced multiple sclerosis (MS).

About 500 people with late-stage MS are to enrol in clinical trials in England and Scotland to see if three common drugs can slow disease progression.

Research suggests the medicines may protect the brain from further damage.

There is currently no treatment for secondary progressive MS, a form of the disease marked by increased disability.

About 100,000 people are living with MS in the UK. Symptoms include problems with walking, balance, speech, vision and extreme fatigue.

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“Too big to fail”? Care home closures and the price of market failure

July 17, 2013   Carers, DOH, Older care

By the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, 15th July 2013

The real human costs of market failure and care home closure for the residents and their families

As the Competition Commission points out in the guidance which it is uses when conducting a market investigation, truly effective markets are characterised by ‘uncertainty, turbulence and change’.

And nowhere has market turbulence been more keenly felt than in the care home sector for older people, which has been subject to the vicissitudes of the market for the past 20 years.  Most recently, the care home chain Southern Cross went into administration as a result of an unsustainable debt financing model.  As the care homes owned by Southern Cross were looking after 31, 000 people, the government was faced with the prospect that nearly 9% of all the available care beds in England would disappear in one fell swoop.

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App will help patients and carers

July 17, 2013   Carers, disability, health, hospital, Social care

App offers NHS patients in Manchester the chance to digitally manage their care plans

Manchester’s Clinical Commissioning Groups have engaged creative agency and social enterprise SharpFutures to help deliver a tablet application to streamline budget planning for patients and carers. The project brings together The Sharp Project tenants TouchSoft Limited and social enterprise SharpFutures to create the free app designed to help those with long-term health care needs.

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