Category Archives: health
GPs ‘too expensive’ to run health authorities
Bureaucrats will still run local health authorities, despite Government plans to put clinicians in charge, according to GPs who say the money is not there to pay enough doctors to run them.
By Stephen Adams, Medical Correspondent
6:30AM BST 18 Jul 2012
One of Andrew Lansley’s first announcements as Health Secretary was to say England’s 152 primary care trusts (PCTs) would be abolished, to be replaced by groups led by GPs.
The idea – largely approved of by medics – is that doctors will make better decisions about organising local health services for their patients than managers.
Unpaid carers suffering a negative impact on health
There are more than 551,000 unpaid carers in the South West.
A Carers Week survey showed two in five unpaid carers in the South West are sacrificing their own health by putting off medical treatment to care for an ill, frail or disabled loved one.
Carers Week (June 18 to 24) is run by a consortium of eight national charities: Age UK; Carers Trust; Carers UK; Independent Age; Macmillan Cancer Support; Marie Curie Cancer Care; MS Society and Parkinson’s UK.
The commitment shown by carers should be celebrated all year round
Carers deserve our thanks, and the chance to have a break from their responsibilities, says Jude Habib
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Jude Habib
- Guardian Professional,
A few weeks ago my aunt died. She had been ill with dementia for many years but her death was sudden and unexpected. I loved my aunt dearly but the person I worried most about when she died was her sister, who had tirelessly looked after her for such a long time and was her full-time carer.
When Sara died, my aunt F effectively was made redundant. And it wasn’t for the first time. More than 30 years ago, my grandmother died from Parkinson’s disease, having spent the last years of her life pretty much bedridden. My aunts cared for her selflessly and, in my opinion, at the expense of their own personal lives.
Those memories of visiting my grandmother and how loving and caring my aunts were towards her have always stayed with me.