Tag Archives: ukcuts

A&E crisis leads to surge in cancelled operations

June 2, 2013   Carers, health, hospital

Doctors raise alarm as surgery is hit, after figures show cancellations have reached a 10-year high

The Observer,

 

More than 220 operations a day were cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice during the first three months of 2013

More planned operations were cancelled in the first few months of this year than for any similar period in almost a decade, it has been revealed, as senior surgeons warn that the crisis in accident and emergency is cascading through the NHS.

More than 220 operations a day were cancelled with less than 24 hours’ notice during the first three months of 2013, official figures show. A similar scale of cancellations of elective surgery has not been seen since 2004-5. NHS England figures further reveal that the proportion of those patients not treated within 28 days of being turned away from operating tables has crept up to 5.6% – a four-year high.

The number of urgent operations cancelled every month has also doubled under the coalition, from 172 in August 2010 to 401 in April this year.

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The benefit sanctions regime has “gone too far”, leading “to destitution, hardship and hunger

May 31, 2013   Carers, family, poverty, ukcuts

Half a million people in Britain rely on food banks

By: Information Daily Staff Writer
Published: Thursday, May 30, 2013 – 11:46 GMT

Huge cuts to welfare reform have left more than half a million people in Britain reliant on foodbanks to feed themselves or their family, a shocking report by a group of charities has revealed.

Church Action Poverty and Oxfam, with the backing of the Trussell Trust, are calling for a parliamentary inquiry into the relationship between benefit delay, error or sanctions, welfare reform changes and the growth of Britain’s ‘hidden hungry.’

“The shocking reality is that hundreds of thousands of people in the UK are turning to food aid. Cuts to social safety-nets have gone too far, leading to destitution, hardship and hunger on a large scale. It is unacceptable that this is happening in the seventh wealthiest nation on the planet,” said Mark Goldring, Oxfam’s CEO.

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Malnutrition among older people: A lack of food and thought

May 29, 2013   Carers, Older care, ukcuts

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. Images Group Editorial
Malnutrition among older people

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.

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