Children As Young As Five With Mental Health Issues Are Being Placed In Adult Institutions Far From Home

They Work All The Hours God Sends.
Only the bloody Tories could drive junior doctors in NHS hospitals to the brink of strike action.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt plans to impose a new seven-day rolling contract from next April, making the “normal working week” every day including Saturday and to run until 10pm every night except Sunday.
Some 30,000 doctors, who stand to lose up to 30% of their income with the abolition of anti-social hours payments, have signed a petition calling on their union, the BMA, to organise a strike ballot.

“Junior” is a misnomer, by the way.
All 150,000 NHS doctors are “junior” until they become consultants, even if they’re highly experienced specialists in their 30s, like the man who treats my prostate problem.
As an outpatient at Airedale General, I know how selfless these men and women are.
They work all the hours God sends and deserve better treatment than this, from a millionaire politician who thinks nothing of charging the taxpayer for his Mandarin lessons.
( Paul Routledge, 25.09.2015 )

Smoking increases the risk of type 2 diabetes and is now being blamed for 28 million cases worldwide.
A study found it increased the risk of diabetes by 37%.
For those who quit, it’s still 14% and for passive smokers a worrying 22%.
( Daily Mirror, 19.09.2015 )

Excessive Drug Prescriptions.
News that the NHS failed to investigate the unexpected deaths of over 1,000 people with mental health conditions stirred up memories of my lovely dad, who died following inappropriate, excessive drug prescription, through neglect, on a mental health ward.
I couldn’t sum it up better than former care minister, Norman Lamb, who said: “You end up with a sense these lives are regarded as slightly less important than others”.
( Fiona Phillips, 12.12.2015 )

Children Placed In Adult Mental Institutions.
Children as young as five with mental health issues are being placed in adult institutions far from home.
An adult mental health ward is no place for a child.
It is an act of utter, disgraceful neglect and cruelty.
Adult psychiatric wards and their facilities and staffing levels are often basic by fiscal necessity.
They are populated by people with mental health problems who may be verbally abusive, physically threatening or simply distressing to be with.
( Wilfred Soon )

We Didn’t Vaccinate Away Cholera Or Tuberculosis.
We did not vaccinate away cholera.
We didn’t vaccinate away tuberculosis.
There were sanitariums in the 20s and 30s, even the 40s, for tuberculosis.
We didn’t vaccinate that away so there’s a lot of things that people think of that we vaccinated away but we never did in this country.
It was all actually changes and improvements in public health and in sanitation, water and nutrition.
( Dr Toni Bark )

A Moderate Amount Of Alcohol May Beat Alzheimer’s.
Two pints of beer a day could slash Alzheimer’s deaths, a study claims.
Experts found a moderate alcohol intake cut the risk of dying early in newly diagnosed patients by 77%.
Two small glasses of wine or four single whiskies could have the same effect.
They tracked the amount 321 adults in the early stages of the incurable disease drank over three years in Denmark.
The one in 20 who had a couple of beers or wine every day showed life-enhancing benefits.
The one in ten who abstained and heavy drinkers were more likely to die earlier.
Researchers at the University of Southern Denmark believe alcohol may protect brain cells from the disease.
( Nick McDermott, 11.12.2015 )

Hospitals Rationing Hearing Aids.
Hospitals in the UK are rationing hearing aids in a wave of cruel NHS cuts.
Many trusts now offer just one hearing aid even if both ears need help.
It means many patients may have to go private to get the care they need.
Dr Roger Wicks, from the charity Action on Hearing Loss, said, “Hearing aids have been free on the NHS since its creation in 1948. It’s driven by the need to cut costs and has nothing to do with people’s health needs”.
Peter Sydserff, president of the British Society of Hearing Aid Audiologists, said, “It is a classic short-term decision, and it is cruel. Imagine going for an eye test and being asked, ‘Which eye would you like a lens for?’”
( Danny Buckland, 25.10.2015 )

A Blood Test May Predict The Onset Of Arthritis.
A blood test could soon predict who will get arthritis up to 16 years before it fully develops.
It would allow hundreds of thousands of patients to get vital early treatment.
It works by detecting a protein released into the blood when rheumatoid arthritis starts developing.

A team at Oxford University’s Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology studied 2,000 patients and found it was present an average of seven years before arthritis set in.
In some cases the figure was as high as 16 years.

Rheumatoid arthritis is triggered when the immune system malfunctions and affects the joints.
Stephen Simpson, of Arthritis UK, said, “This has great potential to help patients get the right treatment early to keep this painful and debilitating condition under control.”
( Nick McDermott, 11.12.2015 )

Care Provision Is A Multi-Billion Pound Business.
For thousands of housebound elderly and disabled people, a visit by their carer is the highlight of the day.
But all too often it’s all too brief.
No more than 15 minutes, and sometimes as little as five, for the vital attention that makes all the difference to their lives.
Dressing, washing, cooking, cleaning, the things most of us do as routine.

Honestly, social care is in chaos.
Councils are forced by Tory regulations to commission care from private companies, who bid low to drive out the NHS, and then slash terms and conditions for the care workers and ration the time they are allowed to take over a home visit.

Despite all Cameron’s hot air about looking after the old and disabled, there is a £4billion gap between what is needed to provide a decent service and what the Treasury is prepared to spend.
And with an ageing population, that gap is growing by a staggering £700million every year.
That’s why so many councils have been forced to pay for only flying visits, which don’t allow for the “good, sensitive” caring that experts say is critical for the wellbeing of this vulnerable sector of society.

Things can only get worse.
Hospital chiefs complain they can’t discharge elderly patients because there is no social care for them at home.
Care provision is a multi-billion pound business.
It is also a shambles.
Indeed, a scandal.
( Paul Routledge, 25.09.2015 )

Bananas Help To Combat Flu.
Bananas could help fight flu and combat killer diseases such as hepatitis C and Aids, researchers have claimed.
Scientists believe they can create a drug from a protein found in the fruit.
BanLec locks on to sugars on the outside of cells, stopping deadly viruses from getting in.
Its powers were revealed five years ago when researchers developed an anti-viral drug.
But the treatment caused side-effects such as swelling.

They have now made the drug safer.
And trials have found it stops flu in mice.
Experts hope the drug can be put in a nasal spray, but it could be ten years before it is available.
U.S.-based researcher Dr David Markovitz said, “What we’ve done is exciting. Better treatments are desperately needed.”
( Katie Hodge, 23.10.2015 )

Stress may increase the risk of getting Alzheimers.
Stress hormone CRF causes more dementia-related protein to be released in the brain, a study in The EMBO journal found.
Researchers in Florida are now looking at an antibody to block the hormone.
( Daily Mirror, 18.09.2015 )

Almost 44,000 excess deaths last winter, 150% up on the previous year.
Who says Jeremy Hunt’s attempt to end the NHS bed crisis isn’t working?
( Brian Reade, 28.11.2015 )

All nutrients come from the sun or the soil.
( Michael Greger )

With the proper diet, no doctor is necessary.
With the improper diet, no doctor can help.
( Dr Gabriel Cousons )

Medicine is not health care.
Food is health care.
Medicine is sick care.
( Wilfred Soon )

If there is a ‘health food’ section in the grocery store, what does that make the rest of the food sold there?
( Dr Mark Hyman )