Category Archives: stroke
Caring for the ill can cost you your freedom
It was 1996 and I had travelled to Bordeaux in France, with my sons, for a family wedding. My husband, Richard West, chose not to come along. That was OK by me: we were not one of those couples who did everything together and family weddings were not his gig. Richard’s gig, preferably, was being in Vietnam, or the Balkans, or anywhere, really: he’d been a foreign correspondent and wandering reporter all his life.
This was just before the era of the ubiquitous mobile phone, so I am not quite sure how the message reached me: but family networks were alerted and I received the instruction to ring London because Richard, then aged 66, was in hospital after a stroke. He was not in any danger but I needed to return to England as soon as possible. I remember thinking, “Our life is going to change: but I am not going to let this take over my life.”
Patients ‘not ill enough’ for care funding
The NHS should pay for those who have a complex medical condition and need nursing care
BBC Scotland has discovered further evidence that Scottish people are being wrongly charged care home costs.
The BBC has now learned of three people who are minimally conscious or in a vegetative state who have been told they are not “ill enough” to get their care costs paid by the NHS.
The three individuals all suffered serious strokes.