Category Archives: disability

Making sure your online doctor will always have time to see you

April 1, 2012   Carers, disability, health, internet

Last month, the care minister Paul Burstow claimed that within five years 3m patients could be consulting their doctor and managing their health conditions online.

Last year’s Government study of 6,000 patients with conditions such as diabetes showed that telehealth reduced deaths by 45pc

9:42PM BST 31 Mar 2012

After a Government-funded study last year found that so-called “telehealth” or “telemedicine” could dramatically cut deaths and emergency admissions, politicians are aiming to save lives – and money – by ensuring patients suffering from illnesses such as heart or lung conditions can monitor their illness at home.

Accelerated adoption of telehealth should prove beneficial for the likes of Tunstall, a Yorkshire-based business that provides telemedicine technology and services. Many other mid-sized businesses could also flourish in this area, as the NHS looks to the private sector for solutions.

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Westminster council underspends adult care budget by £4.4m

April 1, 2012   Carers, disability, Older care
Westminster has reduced home care hours for disabled residents.

Westminster city council has underspent its adult social care budget by £4.4m so far this financial year, according to a report on the council’s financial performance. The figure is part of a total underspend of £10.4m, which also includes a £0.8m underspend on children‘s services and £2.3m on housing.

Paul Dimoldenberg, leader of the Labour group on Westminster council, told the Guardian’s social care network that the “significant underspend” was a result of the Conservative-controlled council introducing cuts, which should have been phased in over two years, more quickly.

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Paralympian Baroness Grey-Thompson suffers online abuse over train trouble

March 28, 2012   Carers, disability, internet

Baroness Grey-Thompson says she has attracted a stream of anti-disability abuse after she spoke of having to crawl off a train in London.

 

A newspaper website reporting the story prompted a large number of offensive comments about the peer’s disability.

“There’s a lot of disabled people who wouldn’t be able to deal with it the way I’m able to,” she said.

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