Category Archives: Carers

Norfolk young carers all set for right royal treat

February 25, 2012   Carers, Norfolk, young carers

The Lynn News is working with West Norfolk Carers to help improve the lot of youngsters who are giving up their childhood to help care for relatives.

Published on Saturday 25 February 2012 10:23

YOUNGSTERS who care for sick relatives will be given a right royal treat later this year.

Residents living in the Windsor Road area of Lynn will be joining in the Diamond Jubilee celebrations with a street party on Monday, June 4.

The organisers of the party will be raising money on the day to treat children and teenagers to a day out at Sandringham in the summer.

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Welfare benefits: work till you drop, literally?

February 25, 2012   Carers, disability

Drop the Welfare Bill instead!

Plans to make even seriously ill or disabled people work without pay, or risk having their benefits cut, have met with wide criticism. There will be no time limits on such work placements, to be introduced when the Welfare Reform Bill has been passed by the UK Parliament.

There has been much criticism of often inaccurate “work capability assessments”, carried out by private company Atos to decide whether sick and disabled people should receive employment and support allowance. Decisions to refuse this benefit are frequently overturned on appeal. But now, even those whose claim is accepted could (with a few exceptions) be ordered to undertake unpaid work if a job advisor thinks it appropriate.

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Cancer patient dies alone in hotel room after hospital sends him there to free up beds

February 25, 2012   Cancer, Carers

Wife finds body when she goes to visit

 

  • Hospital routinely sends chemotherapy patients to hotel between treatments
  • Panic alarms had not been installed in hotel rooms for two years as they ‘weren’t used’

By Jenny Hope

Last updated at 2:11 AM on 25th February 2012

 

A cancer patient died alone after being sent to a hotel to recuperate from chemotherapy treatment on the NHS.

Ian Curtis, 39, died 200 yards away from University College Hospital, London, which rents out hotel rooms for patients who would otherwise stay in overnight.

It is the second death of a chemotherapy patient using the scheme since it was introduced in 2004.

‘Catastrophic infection’: Ian Curtis, 39, died in a hotel 200 yards away from University College Hospital, London, where his wife Tracy found his body

The hospital stopped installing panic alarms in rooms at the four-star Radisson Edwardian Grafton Hotel last year because patients did not use them.

Mr Curtis was overwhelmed by a sudden ‘catastrophic infection’ that prevented him making a phone call for help.

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