Tag Archives: family

The results of years of underfunding for care

September 26, 2011   Carers, family, Older care

Don’t ask relatives to fill the elderly care gap

The idea that visiting hours could be extended so relatives can care for patients shows something is seriously wrong in the NHS

The RCN has suggested that visitors could tend to the needs of elderly patients.

The Royal College of Nursing’s suggestion that hospital visiting hours should be extended so visitors can tend to the needs of hospital patients, particularly older people, highlights, yet again, the inadequacy of UK care. With an ageing population and a woefully underfunded system of care, we are heading for a major crisis if we do not wake up to the challenges that are already upon us. When it comes to care for older people, a fortune is spent on the health service, but care is considered very much the poor relation.

Yet inadequate care of elderly patients can be just as life-threatening as inadequate attention to their medical needs. We read about pensioners dying of malnutrition in hospitals and of nursing staff so overstretched that they neglect the basic care needs of the elderly. This is a result of years of underfunding for care.

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UK carers are facing terrible concerns over finances

September 24, 2011   Carers, disability, family, Older care

UK carers ‘desperately worried about finances’

By Katherine Sellgren BBC News education reporter

Many carers had given up their jobs to help relatives and are now trapped in debt

The financial situation of more than a third of carers in the UK is so bad they do not want to wake up in the morning, research suggests.

A survey by Princess Royal Trust for Carers found 45% of those it questioned wanted to run away or felt depressed and that they could not cope.

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Secret Millionaire helps carers

September 22, 2011   Carers, disability, family

Tuam’s secret millionaire a hit with viewers

Galway Advertiser,
John Concannon

By Martina Nee

The first episode of RTÉ’s The Secret Millionaire, which featured an emotional and generous donation by Galway man John Concannon, was the most watched programme on television on Monday night.

The Tuam-based entrepreneur and managing director of JFC Manufacturing is given a new identity in the programme and spends a number of days and nights in different areas of Dublin, sometimes posing as a community worker and in other instances as a handyman, on the look-out for people and charities to help. In the programme we see the cameras following Mr Concannon around his plastics manufacturing business in Tuam, with his family in nearby Kilconly, and then on to Dublin where most of the show is set with audiences seeing him working undercover.

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