When mental capacity assessments must delve beneath what people say to what they do | Community Care

I disagree as each have their own important skills which should be used in tandem, for one is using the ‘social model’ while the other is using the ‘medical model’, when really it should be a mixture of both.

For example, my wife was in hospital last year and the consultant formed the opinion, that she needed to be on 24/7 oxygen when she was discharged and he assumed, wrongly, that my wife would mention this to me.

But she has a memory problem sometimes, while showing confidence and strength in her manner.

What she did mention to me was that the Consultant was considering 24/7 oxygen at home and thought he would discuss this with me.

A week went by and I had no such discussion, so I enquired what was happening after the week had gone by when I made my daily visit, to be informed that the process had been concluded.

But, to me no home assessment had been done, so they did not know we had 24/7 care for our daughter, who lives at home with us, I had not informed my house insurers or anyone else.

While I was visiting my wife the oxygen supplier tried to deliver the oxygen, which was, rightly refused by our daughters carers.

I then found out that the Home assessment had not been done, so this was done on my next day visit and I agreed to the oxygen delivery.

I would mention that my wife had mentioned for them to discuss this with me, which they saw fit to ignore.

I was given no consideration and left completely in the dark.

I was my not only my wife’s husband, but also her carer and therefore was the person who took responsibility for the management of the oxygen as my wife relied on me for everything, her choice.

But choice is also something that is ignored by hospitals as well as carers and with COVID-19 carers are going to be more evident than they were previously in their number and their responsibilities.

Hospitals need to consider ‘person-centred ‘care instead of ‘institutional’ care.

The care team is not just hospital personal, but everyone within the caring of a person, including the person themselves, which who at times is seen as an object and an inconvenience to some hospital staff.

I am not blaming the staff, but the system, as the staff do their best within the constraints of the system.

 

Source: When mental capacity assessments must delve beneath what people say to what they do | Community Care

The NHS taking over social care would be a disaster. Make services truly local instead | Social care | The Guardian

Covid-19 has exacerbated the social care crisis – but a national service isn’t the answer

Source: The NHS taking over social care would be a disaster. Make services truly local instead | Social care | The Guardian

Treating dying people in hospices during Covid-19 is breaking me | Society | The Guardian

The restrictions over visitors are necessary but go against the whole ethos of the hospice and what we do

Source: Treating dying people in hospices during Covid-19 is breaking me | Society | The Guardian

Child mental health was in crisis before Covid-19. We can’t go back to ‘normal’ | Society | The Guardian

Services were already creaking pre-coronavirus, and vulnerable children will be even more at risk when the lockdown is lifted

Source: Child mental health was in crisis before Covid-19. We can’t go back to ‘normal’ | Society | The Guardian

What does the NHS need to survive for another 70 years? | Richard Horton, Clare Gerada, and others | Opinion | The Guardian

As the health service marks its 70th anniversary, experts offer their prescriptions for keeping it going

 

Source: What does the NHS need to survive for another 70 years? | Richard Horton, Clare Gerada, and others | Opinion | The Guardian

Shock figures from top thinktank reveal extent of NHS crisis | Society | The Guardian

The NHS has among the lowest per capita numbers of doctors, nurses and hospital beds in the western world, a new study of international health spending has revealed.

The stark findings come from a new King’s Fund analysis of health data from 21 countries, collected by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development. They reveal that only Poland has fewer doctors and nurses than the UK, while only Canada, Denmark and Sweden have fewer hospital beds, and that Britain also falls short when it comes to scanners.

“If the 21 countries were a football league then the UK would be in the relegation zone in terms of the resources we put into our healthcare system, as measured by staff, equipment and beds in which to care for patients,” said Siva Anandaciva, the King’s Fund’s chief analyst.

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“If you look across all these indicators – beds, staffing, scanners – the UK is consistently below the average in the resources we give the NHS relative to countries such as France and Germany. Overall, the NHS does not have the level of resources it needs to do the job we all expect it to do, given our ageing and growing population, and the OECD data confirms that,” he added.

The report concludes that, given the dramatic differences between Britain and other countries: “A general picture emerges that suggests the NHS is under-resourced.”

 

Source: Shock figures from top thinktank reveal extent of NHS crisis | Society | The Guardian

Hunt refusing interviews as NHS cancels all non-urgent ops and outpatients

In spite of public anger over the absence of Transport Secretary Chris Grayling today as a major increase in rail fares was announced, Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt has refused requests for interviews as news broke that NHS England is telling hospitals to cancel all non-urgent operations and outpatient appointments for the whole month of January.

This is far from the first time that Hunt has gone ‘AWOL’ – or hidden – during an NHS crisis.

Last winter, as the NHS struggled through the 2016/17 winter crisis, Hunt disappeared for weeks before finally emerging to give a weak interview to the BBC in which he stated there were ‘no excuses’ for the NHS disaster – before making a list of excuses and blaming all kinds of things for it.

Except himself, of course.

Now, as hospitals all over England are told to cancel thousands of operations for a whole calendar month – on top of cancellations already made in December – the Department of Health (DH) has,

 

Source: Hunt refusing interviews as NHS cancels all non-urgent ops and outpatients

Councils may cut social care provision due to underfunding, LGA says | Society | The Guardian

Older and vulnerable people could stop receiving vital help to get out of bed, washed and dressed, because the underfunding of social care has become so severe, councils have warned.

Leaders of 370 local authorities in England and Wales fear that some councils are finding it so hard to provide the right level of support they could face a high court legal challenge for breaking the law.

The Local Government Association said care visits could become shorter, carers could face greater strain and more people could be trapped in hospitals, making NHS services even busier as a result. The LGA estimates that there will be a £2.6bn gap by 2020 between the amount of money social care services need and their budgets.

Source: Councils may cut social care provision due to underfunding, LGA says | Society | The Guardian

More than 10 avoidable deaths a day linked to A&E overcrowding : Express.

Problems can occur in any organisations and situations and if they are not attended to outcomes will be affected. In some instances the problems will create blockages in processes thereby, more than likely, the outcomes will related to shortages. In others the problems could produce outcomes relating to over supply.

In manufacturing and industry these outcomes could be dealt with by changing production systems, reallocating employees, increasing or decreasing production and even stop production over a period. All these can be considered as the products being produced are inanimate objects. But when the outcomes, as in health and social care are relative to human life other methods need to be considered and implemented.

More money being available is one such consideration and for a time this may solve the problem, but if the root cause or causes are not being identified, then the problems will continue to reappear and more often with a greater intensity.

The problems could be not having the right staff in the right place at the right time, system deficiencies, lack of effective management or supervision or the wrong type. In time all of the these problems can be overcome, but the biggest problem is identifying the problem or problems in the first place. In this does the system even allow for this identification to take place and if it does do those in power or control of the system consider the findings and or act accordingly.

For in health and social care much of what is brought to bear on both health and social care is governed by political motives.

Funding for both is mainly in the hands of who is in power at any particular time and what is their own political outcomes, which may or may not be beneficial to health, social care and those in receipt of the services.

All that being said there are some savings or changes which could be found, however, these will most likely not be sufficient to solve the problems.

What should solve the problems is that all persons, organisations and political masters to work together to formulate a common aim that everyone could take ownership of, in other words ‘co-production’.

Unfortunately, those in power do not care for co-production as the resultant aim is owned by the co-production team and not those with the purse strings.

Fury as Glasgow hospital charges disabled patients £1 to use wheelchairs : Daily Record.

Hospitals operating as supermarkets, is this the start of things to come, what will be next, buy one get one free or half price. Is it privatisation by the back door or just a method to retain the chairs against theft.

Are these chairs really that desirable or is it propaganda for more to come.