Covid booster vaccine to be offered to millions in England next week | Coronavirus | The Guardian

Care home residents will be first to receive spring top-up jab as infections in England hit 2023 high

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This is so welcomed news to many and enforces that COVID-19 has not gone away. For it is believed that COVID-19 is no longer with us by many, for it so still here and will be for a long time to come.

If you are in the groups who are entitled to receive the vaccine, then please do so to ensure you are as protected as much as you can be.

 

Source: Covid booster vaccine to be offered to millions in England next week | Coronavirus | The Guardian

NDIS mark-ups for people with a disability as bad as wedding price gouging, insiders say – ABC News

Comment from the article ‘Ms Atmore said there were time consuming, costly and “quite stringent” processes that providers within her organisation went through before they could offer services to NDIS participants.”

Usually involving some kind of registration and appropriate standards before they even consider providing work,” she said.
She also said allied health professionals often had to tailor their services to the needs of NDIS participants, which can also take up more time and resources.’

My comment is, surely any organisation should expect costs for registration and have apprpriate standards for to not do so could well mean there is no governance of the organisation and the services they provide. So my concern is what about the organisations not registered are they just doing what they wish to with no consideration of their customers.

With ‘tailoring services to the needs of patients’, surely this should be done in all cases as if not services could be given that are not appropriate.

Unfortunately I feel the instances of unsatisfactory organisations and inappropriate services is much more prolific than it should be in many countries, even in the US with their for profit health care system.

Every organisation should be providing good, if not excellent service and all services provided should be exactly what is required for each individual patient be it provided through a universal free at the point of delivery service or through profit making insurance provision. None should be over priced for anyone, especially for persons with disabilities., but, unfortunately that is not so for many business do increase their prices when they know they will be accepted this is especially so for areas through insurance and when dealing with large national medical organisations.

Many large national organisations may have a stringent process to initially include suppliers onto their list of recommended suppliers, but is this list frequently inspected, if ever to see if ‘value for money’ is still being provided and services just as good and maybe better could be obtained for other and maybe new suppliers.

I don’t know, but I do wish the national medical organisations do so, for all concerned.

 

Source: NDIS mark-ups for people with a disability as bad as wedding price gouging, insiders say – ABC News

Endometriosis: black women continue to receive poorer care for the condition

Black women are half as likely to be diagnosed with endometriosis compared to white women.

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This is so wrong, especially that studies have concluded that most, if not all Humans originated in now known Africa.

Then there was the formation of medical science, and the mistaken view that the more white a person is means they are more superior, which in many instances led to the slavery from Africa to the Americas in the 16th century. However, there were many instances of slavery from well before then.

Slavery led to the view that some people were more superior to others or that slaves were a commodity without Human Rights.

Could this be a legacy to how black women are viewed in some areas of the medical profession and perhaps other areas. Certainly in some areas of America black persons are not viewed as being equal to white persons, even to this day and many would bring back slavery if they could. But with the abolition of some of the Rights of Women in some states of America and the reversal of Roe v Wade, anything could be possible.

Rights of women, especially Black women need to be greatly improved, so the medical profession take this seriously, but this needs to be seriously taken in very many areas,

Women are just as equal as men and anywhere that this is not so needs to be changed urgently.

 

Source: Endometriosis: black women continue to receive poorer care for the condition

‘My brother with Down’s Syndrome is slowly spiralling’: The severity of the social care crisis laid bare

Nearly half of social care providers in England have been forced to close part of their organisation or hand back contracts to councils due to cost pressures in the last year, i reveals

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This is the true state of Social Care in the UK and this government is not listening, but then no previous government has listened.

The closed ears of UK governments have lead to this crisis, which if anyone cared to look would have seen it coming well before 2010, but the Tory austerity cuts from then only enhanced the crisis much more and still is to this day, with no seen improvements coming from any future governments.

It is not only with Down’s Syndrome but in every aspect of social care both childrens and adults. It requires an immediate increase, of at least, £12 billion to reverse the decline, but to enable continued sustainability much more in all the coming years. For if it is not done we can say goodbye to social care and following very closely the NHS as well. For without a sustained and credible social care the NHS crisis will continue to get worse no matter how much is given to the NHS.

Social care is the immediate priority and then the NHS. both are in severe deficit of staff, social care more so than the NHS. While NHS staff salaries need to be increased in-line with inflation, all social care not only require an inflation increase in salaries but a massive upgrading from the forthcoming April 2023 £11 per hour to around £13/14 this year and £15 next year. To do nothing more than the increase to £11 of the National Liviving Wage is effectively completely saying social care can end to any degree.

Human rights will be ignored and safeguarding alerts will escalate and everyone will blame social workers when the real culprits will be the government.

 

Source: ‘My brother with Down’s Syndrome is slowly spiralling’: The severity of the social care crisis laid bare

US state legislators propose death penalty for women who have an abortion | The BMJ

Republican legislators in South Carolina have proposed a bill to change the state’s laws, making a fertilised egg or embryo a person and charging a woman who has an abortion with murder, which carries a 30 year prison sentence or the death penalty. Henry McMaster, the state’s Republican governor, has said that he would sign anti-abortion regulations.

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If I had seen this in some other publications I would have assumed it was ‘Fake News’, but about a State in America where common sense and human rights are being totally ignored.

With  the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade on 24 June 2022 it was a very retrograde step and now this action is leading to many more retrograde far reaching steps taking place.

The human rights of women which have been long fought for and are now being totally ignored as though women don’t have any rights at all. Much of this is down to the long held extreme religious views held in some states of America where women are being disregarded.

Where will it end, will it be that women will have no legal rights at all, lose the right to vote, a right to lead their own lives and be forced to be under the control of men as is the case in some countries in the Middle East, not allow girls to gain education and more.

These far right Christian religious views are in reality not much different to those of religious fanatics of other religions. Will these States be, in effect, no different to those of Iran and Afghanistan.

What will be the next could it be same sex marriage, LGBTQIA, racism and more.

In these States equality gains are being reversed just because of extreme Christian views, when really Christianity should be much more closer related to equality. These extreme Christians quote The bible, but only the texts which agree with their views and ignore any that don’t.

In the 21st century we are very much more enlightened than in the views and opinions in The Bible which it evidences, but the evidence was years dated when it occurred, if it did, to when it was inserted into The Bible. The Bible has been translated many times and some passages were passed down as folklore and is in some ways disproved in other areas of The Bible.

Times change and so do opinions, but not for religious fanatics of any religion.

Source: US state legislators propose death penalty for women who have an abortion | The BMJ

Are Texas’s abortion laws being used for state-sponsored spousal harassment? | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian

A Texas man is suing his ex-wife’s friends for helping her get an abortion – whether he wins or not, the lawsuit is sending a terrifying message to women

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Freedoms are hard fought for and when achieved those who wanted them feel they have achieved everything, but as can be seen in America those who oppose freedoms fight just has hard to overthrow those that have been granted.

Women in America are now losing some of their human rights and this is totally wrong. Will they ever get them back, well we all hope so.

A fight is never truly won, only some of the battles.

 

Source: Are Texas’s abortion laws being used for state-sponsored spousal harassment? | Arwa Mahdawi | The Guardian

Shortfall of £2.3bn a year in England’s care homes ‘putting people at risk’ | Social care | The Guardian

Exclusive: Funding hole directly affects elderly people whose bills are entirely or partly paid for by councils

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Yes, the £7 billion is just scratching the surface and will do nothing to improve the quality of social care, just perhaps, stop any further declines.

To improve quality the staff vacancies in all areas of social care need to be filled, but the rates currently being paid to carers will never achieve this, so these rates need to be considerably increased without delay, for to delay the staffing shortages will only get worse.

Even the increase to the National Living Wage to £10.42 in April 2023 will not bring in more care workers for that rate is far from a Living Wage and then it is reduced by having to pay income tax. to bring in more care workers the rate has to be in the region of £14.00 per hour and also an alteration to our immigration criteria to encourage people from outwith the UK to come to work in care.

This Government and all previous governments have allowed by their inability or unwillingness to properly fund social care for social care to continue to deteriorate. this deterioration increases health inequalities which are and will continue to reduce the quality of care in the NHS.

At least £12 billion just for social care is required and this government needs to pay this to local authorities without any further delays, or we can say goodbye to both social care and the NHS.

So to provide substantially more funding for social care and in doing so cover all vacancies and more will not only improve the quality of care in social care, but also the NHS, as both are in dire need of major improvements and currently staffing levels in both can’t do more than they are currently doing.

We need a listening government, but I can’t see this coming from this current government or the next one, be it Labour or Conservative.

Source: Shortfall of £2.3bn a year in England’s care homes ‘putting people at risk’ | Social care | The Guardian

Six myths about learning disabilities and OKUs | Malay Mail

Dr Chua Sook Ning expressed concern about the stigmatisation of mental disorders and blanket statements that people with OKU cards shouldn’t drive. ― Picture courtesy of Dr Chua Sook Ning

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While this is relating to Malaysia its content could relate to anywhere for myths are myths wherever they arise.

In the instances described the myths are mainly derived through ignorance  and in some instances to discriminate and not from known facts.

In days gone by it would have been difficult for information to be found to discount the myths, but in these days with the internet, as long as the information is from a very reliable source they can be discounted and so the discriminations should reduce. But some of these myths are very strongly supported by some, so great care is needed to differentiate what is myth and what is truth.

 

Source: Six myths about learning disabilities and OKUs | Malay Mail

‘Burning shame as Brits from all sections of society were left in Covid’s crosshairs’ – Anna Morell – Mirror Online

All Covid support has gone, but there are still shielders – disabled people who know their underlying conditions put them at too great a risk from Covid to venture out and reclaim a fully lived life now

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COVID-19 was and perhaps still is viewed as a once in a lifetime situation, but over the years there have been many instances were pandemics could have occurred Bird Flu, to name one and there is influenza, which is a form of COVID, where vaccine is available each year for those who are seen to be at risk and for those in some of the emergency services.

When the COVID-19 vaccine became available, yes, certain groups were deemed to be in need of the vaccine, but not those with Learning Disabilities, (LD), even though many are deemed eligible for the influenza vaccine. Then when they were included for the COVID-19 vaccine, at first it was only those with certain conditions and not all.

You may say that sufficient information was not available, but was it for it is already known that persons with LD, have a life expectancy of on average 20% less to those who don’t have LD, and this is from the LeDeR programme. The resulting reports are sent to the Department of health & Social Security so there is no way that the department can say they were not aware of the information. Perhaps it was decided that persons with LD were not considered to be a sufficient priority as they were deemed to be not important enough, who Knows, perhaps this will come out in Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp messages, but who knows.

This is a disgrace and shows that this Government and perhaps any government don’t really care about anyone, other than themselves and those who they seem to believe to be important.

Source: ‘Burning shame as Brits from all sections of society were left in Covid’s crosshairs’ – Anna Morell – Mirror Online

Social Care Costs See Thousands Chased For Debt

It doesn’t help those who are contributing to their Social Care, but since 2010 the Tory governments have been subjecting Local Authorities (LAs) to totally unjustified austerity cuts, thereby drastically reducing the income they have to fund services, but all blame for service cuts is placed on LAs and not the Government, which it should be, Governments have to be made accountable. Yes, we have General elections every 4/5 years, but accountability should be immediate not some years hence.

But LAs are not completely blameless, for the Financial Assessments leave a lot to be desired, for some assessors as, I have come across, don’t fully understand the system they are using to do the assessments.

The biggest omission I find is with regards to Disability Related Expenses, (DREs) which is expenditure which persons with disability/health conditions have to make, but these expenses can be offset to the Social Care charge. Of course, proof of these payments are required and this is perhaps another problem for how many of us keep such information.

So, the problem is at least 2 fold, DREs are not always discussed or if they are not in sufficient detail, but then there is the lack of proof people will have retained to prove they made the expenditure.

Another problem is when disability benefits are increased, this increase is included in the social care calculation, so much of the increase will not be available to the person claiming social care has it has been incorporated into the charge they will have to pay for their social care.

But, another problem is the discriminatory nature of what disabilities and conditions are deemed to be social care as opposed to health care. With health care there is no direct charge to the claimant, as there is with social care.

While social care is processed by the local authority social care department, the health portion is processed by the Health Continuing Health Care department, (CHC) and both processes are dealt with separately, sometimes within the same meeting with the claimant, but in other separately.

If it is deemed that there could be a health element to the care required then further investigation could be in the form of 24 hour health grids where each individual action has to be recorded in detail including the time taken to perform the action. The information I have found is from the previous Clinical Commissioning Group, (CCG), but these have been replaced by ICBs from 1 July 2022, but here is the latest information about care I have found.

Then the lengthy process of deciding if there is a health element and if there is the split between health and social care which can be a very lengthy time process. While the implementation of care should not be delayed while this debate is occurring it does in many instances, thereby causing, in some instances, much delay for much need care to be implemented.
All of this takes precious time which should be being spent on receiving the care required, that is if persons to care for the person needing can be found, which is another great problem, as there is a major insufficiency of carers for a number of reasons, mainly down to the lack of funding for social care, which leads to very poor rates of pay for carers, poor working conditions, including lack of suitable holiday pay, travel expenses, sick pay and more, but also due to the UK Immigration Policies which are not great for persons wishing to come to the UK to be carers. Much needs to be done, but it appears very little is being done, currently to remedy any, if at all the problems.
Care is deteriorating in many ways, the availability, the standards and much more, this government and all future governments need to wake up and understand, appreciate and sufficiently fund social care.

Same Difference

More than 60,000 adults with disabilities and long-term illnesses in England were chased for debts by councils last year after failing to pay for their social care support at home.

Claimants told the BBC they can’t afford the charges amid rising food and rent prices, along with the additional costs of living with disabilities.

Councils took legal action against 330 people in 2021-22.

The Local Government Association said such action was a “last option”.

Councils ask social care recipients to contribute towards the home care they receive in nearly all areas of England, but previous BBC research found charges had risen by thousands of pounds a year for some adults.

Some disabled people have now told the BBC they felt they had little choice but to live without home care, while others said they feared bailiffs being called in over unpaid debts.

Campaign group Disabled People Against Cuts said the…

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