Patients to inspect hospitals

July 18, 2013   Carers, hospital, Older care

‘I want a small army’: Hospitals chief inspector urges patients and ex-doctors to join battle to weed out poor care

  • Squads with doctors and nurses to probe care at all NHS trusts
  • 9 of 11 failing trusts were  passed as safe by Care Quality Commission
  • Chief inspector Sir Mike Richards: ‘I will not tolerate poor or mediocre care’
  • By Sophie Borland and Matt Chorley

PUBLISHED: 23:43, 17 July 2013 | UPDATED: 08:52, 18 July 2013

The CQC’s new chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Sir Mike Richards, admitted today the previous CQC inspections had been flawed. He said: ‘We wouldn’t be changing it if it wasn’t.’

Patients, ex-doctors and carers are to be recruited to join a ‘small army’ of hospital inspectors to root-out poor care.

They will form 15-strong squads with doctors and nurses which will carry out thorough investigations of all NHS trusts over the next two years.

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MS hope from 'off-the-shelf' drugs

July 17, 2013   Carers, Multiple Sclerosis
17 July 2013 Last updated at 07:44

MS hope from ‘off-the-shelf’ drugs

By Helen Briggs BBC News

 MS can cause problems with walking and balance

Existing drugs for motor neurone disease, asthma and heart disease are being tested as possible treatments for advanced multiple sclerosis (MS).

About 500 people with late-stage MS are to enrol in clinical trials in England and Scotland to see if three common drugs can slow disease progression.

Research suggests the medicines may protect the brain from further damage.

There is currently no treatment for secondary progressive MS, a form of the disease marked by increased disability.

About 100,000 people are living with MS in the UK. Symptoms include problems with walking, balance, speech, vision and extreme fatigue.

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“Too big to fail”? Care home closures and the price of market failure

July 17, 2013   Carers, DOH, Older care

By the Centre for Health and the Public Interest, 15th July 2013

The real human costs of market failure and care home closure for the residents and their families

As the Competition Commission points out in the guidance which it is uses when conducting a market investigation, truly effective markets are characterised by ‘uncertainty, turbulence and change’.

And nowhere has market turbulence been more keenly felt than in the care home sector for older people, which has been subject to the vicissitudes of the market for the past 20 years.  Most recently, the care home chain Southern Cross went into administration as a result of an unsustainable debt financing model.  As the care homes owned by Southern Cross were looking after 31, 000 people, the government was faced with the prospect that nearly 9% of all the available care beds in England would disappear in one fell swoop.

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