Tag Archives: Older care
Five minute operation to treat Glaucoma
Me and my operation: Five-minute op means no more painful eye drops for glaucoma
By Carol Davis
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More than half a million Britons have the eye condition glaucoma, which damages sight. Gill Robinson, 61, a retired carer from St Ives, Cambridgeshire, had a new procedure, as she tells CAROL DAVIS.THE PATIENT
A new five-minute laser treatment means those who suffer from glaucoma will no longer have to use painful eye dropsWhen I started getting headaches at the age of 35, I had my eyes checked because I was driving people with learning disabilities.
I was prescribed glasses, which stopped the headaches, but during routine tests they found the pressure in my eyes was high. The optician explained the fluid that keeps your eyeball in the right shape can start to damage your sight if it can’t drain away.
This is because pressure in the eye builds up and damages the optic nerve. That worried me, but tests each year showed the pressure wasn’t high enough for doctors to take action.
But a test in 2004 showed the pressure reading had risen to 35 – normal is ten or 12. I was referred to Rupert Bourne, who saw me two weeks later.
He said I was at risk of developing glaucoma, where the pressure is so high it causes damage and sight loss.
The fluid in the eye drains away through tiny channels into the veins around the eye – but in some people these holes become blocked.
He prescribed eye drops to keep the pressure down and said he’d see me again in nine months’ time.
Each night, I’d have to pull my lid down to put the drops in before I went to sleep and they would sting horribly. My eyes were permanently sore and red, and people thought I’d been crying.
In 2011, the pressure was rising again. Mr Bourne explained the drops can stop working over time. He said he could put a tiny titanium tube into the corner of my eye. This would force open the drainage channels.
Malnutrition among older people: A lack of food and thought
There are an estimated 3 million people in the UK suffering from malnutrition but, despite the public health implications, the issue receives very little attention. So how can awareness be raised?
Denis Campbell
The Guardian, Wednesday 29 May 2013
Domestic carers who only visit an old person’s home once a week may not realise the person they look after is not eating enough. Photograph: BSIP/Universal Images Group Editorial
For some people the word “malnutrition” inevitably conjures up mental images of starving children in Africa. But it is also an issue much closer to home, here in the United Kingdom. About 3 million people in the UK are estimated to either suffer from malnourishment or be at risk of becoming underfed. The resulting problems are believed to cost the public sector several billion pounds, for example from avoidable hospital admissions and extra GP visits for treatments of the range of illnesses malnutrition can cause. The National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice) has identified better nutritional care as the sixth-largest potential source of savings in the NHS.
Dementia care given priority in new NHS training guidelines
Department of Health training blueprint promises to give NHS education unprecedented focus and importance
Andrew Sparrow
The Guardian, Tuesday 28 May 2013
Tackling dementia and encouraging medical students to become GPs are among the priorities under a new framework for NHS training.
At least half the number of medical students must go on to become GPs, and much more should be done to increase awareness of dementia, an NHS training blueprint will announce today.
Getting more nurses to train in the community is also a priority under a new framework for NHS training.
