Category Archives: hospital
Elderly denied NHS care ‘can sue’
By Michelle Roberts Health editor, BBC News online
From October, elderly patients will have the right to sue if they have been denied care based on age alone, says Care Minister Paul Burstow.
This will not mean patients can demand any treatment they want. Care decisions will still be judged according to clinical need by doctors.
But NHS staff will have a legal duty to consider wellbeing and dignity.
Hospitals discharging homeless people onto the street
More than 70 per cent of homeless people are being discharged from hospital back onto the streets in England, damaging their health and costing the NHS money, new Homeless Link and St. Mungo’s report indicates.
Improving Hospital Admission and Discharge for People who are Homeless
We call on all the NHS to take a step to end homelessness by ensuring everyone has somewhere suitable to go when they leave hospital.
(PRWEB UK) 28 May 2012
The report has found that NHS staff can improve health outcomes for homeless people and save the NHS money by ensuring all patients have somewhere appropriate to stay when they are discharged from hospital.
Paul Burstow, Care Services Minister, acknowledged these findings during a visit to the Pathway homeless team at University College Hospital (UCH) in London today (28 May). The dedicated homelessness team at UCH were named as an example of best practice in the report, which comes from an in-depth study of 85 homeless people, hospitals, local authorities and homelessness agencies.
Patients ‘treated in corridors’, claims Royal College of Nursing
‘Huge stress’
By Nick Triggle Health correspondent, BBC News
Patients are being left stranded on trolleys for hours and forced to have treatment in corridors due in part to the loss of hospital beds, nurses say.
The Royal College of Nursing says feedback from more than 1,200 staff paints a “worrying picture”, with patients regularly being in ambulances or held in a queue.
The union warned the NHS risked going backwards unless ministers got a grip.
The government said there were enough beds for this not to be happening.
Of the 1,246 nurses and healthcare assistants who replied to an RCN request for feedback, a fifth said providing care in corridors had become a daily occurrence.
chenrezig 
annie 
JaneJ 