Elderly Booted Out Of Hospitals

QUESTION: What kind of health service turfs vulnerable, confused and often elderly people on to the streets at the dead of night in their pyjamas in order to free up beds?
ANSWER: One that’s callous and cruel and needs to take a long, hard look at what it actually exists for.
Because a health organisation that treats patients like cattle – and the evidence is that ours does – isn’t fit for purpose.
When did it happen that an NHS, once the envy of the world, started being run by a bunch of overpaid “suits” who care more about meeting targets and filling in forms than the patients?
The medical staff aren’t much better.
We’re regularly told they are too busy to care for sick patients because, guess what, they’re too busy filling in forms.
Up to 8,000 patients a week are being kicked out of hospitals between 11pm and 6am.
Often in their dressing gowns.
In huge areas of this country we now have a health service that doesn’t give a toss about the people in its care, that is devoid of compassion and sees patients as simply bed blockers and not the frightened people they are.
Many of those being booted out in the early hours are elderly people who can’t fight back, people so powerless and frail they’ll follow orders however inhumane and callous they might be.
( Carole Malone )

Those Who Understand The Plan Are Against It.
Nobody doubts that the NHS needs repairing.
But most people, if asked how to fix it, would not come up with the vast and complex scheme adopted by Andrew Lansley, the Health Secretary.
They would seek ways of keeping hospitals properly clean.
They would try to ensure the return of traditional nursing.
Easier and more personal access to GPs is also a major desire, along with a clear line of responsibility if things go wrong.
Somehow or other, Mr Lansley has wandered far away from trying to allay such simple concerns.
Few understand his plan.
Most of those who do understand it are against it.
( The Mail On Sunday )

Don’t Call The Old Folk ‘Dear’.
According to a new NHS report, the answer to taking better care of our elderly is not to call them “Dear”.
Well, I’d like to be a bit controversial here and say the answer to taking care of our elderly is NOT to keep letting them die of starvation and dehydration under the noses of doctors, nurses and carers whose job it is to take care of them.
Those same doctors and nurses we’re told routinely ignore their cries for medication when they’re in agony and who leave them lying in their own excrement for hours because they’re too “busy” to take them to the toilet.
It’s taken eight months for a bunch of “suits” from the NHS Confederation Association to produce this report which says that patronising the elderly should be taken every bit as seriously as racism or sexist abuse.
And they reckon calling them “Dear” or “Chuck” constitutes being patronised.
Tosh! I suspect most old people ache to be called “Dear” as it implies a degree of compassion and caring that currently doesn’t exist across much of our NHS.
Calling a pensioner “Dear” suggests that whoever’s saying it might just feel a smidgeon of warmth towards the frail and the frightened in their care as opposed to making them feel like an inconvenience.
And what kind of health service have we actually got when our PM has to ORDER medical staff to make hourly checks on patients to see if they need food, water or to go to the toilet.
It’s their job, for God’s sake.
It should also be their vocation.
( Carole Malone )

A Third Of Britons Live Alone.
More of us than ever are living on our own – and it seems that the solo lifestyle could be a cause of poor mental health.
A third of Britons live alone.
The latest figures from the Office of National Statistics show that divorce rates are rising and fewer people are getting married.
It is estimated that by 2020, 40% of households will have only one person.
But now a study suggests that those living alone are 80% more likely to be depressed than those who co-habit.
Researchers in Finland followed 1,695 men and 1,776 women aged between 30 and 65 for seven years, of whom 14% lived alone.
Use of antidepressants was monitored simultaneously through national prescription registers.
Between 2002 and 2008, those people living alone were 1.8 times more likely to purchase antidepressants.
( Alice Smellie )

Mental Distress Is Rising In England.
Mental distress is rising in England, according to mental health charity MIND.
Mixed anxiety and depression is the most common illness now, suffered by more than half of those with a disorder.
Women are more likely than men to be affected.
19.7% of all women in the UK have a mental health disorder, according to Mind, compared to 12.5% of men.
Drug treatments were revolutionised in the 20th century but remain imperfect.
Current NHS funding cuts mean that the ‘talking cures’ are likely to be available to ever fewer people.

Too Many Suicides By People Taking Antidepressants.
Here’s an important breakthrough in the battle to get a proper investigation into ‘antidepressants’.
Dr Declan Gilsenan, former Assistant State Pathologist in Ireland, says he has seen ‘too many suicides’ after people had started taking antidepressants, and has questioned whether GPs are over prescribing them.
After 30 years as a pathologist he says the evidence is ‘more than anecdotal’.
Sooner or later, this scandal will explode.
Why not sooner?
( Peter Hitchens )

Bedbugs Will Live Anywhere.
Bedbugs are brown with flat, wingless bodies about the size of a grain of rice.
The insects can jump 6 inches from one human to another.
They feed on blood, consuming about four times their own body weight in only 15 minutes.
They can survive for 18 months without food and live up to 4 years.
It is a myth that they only infest dirty flats or bedsits – bedbugs will live anywhere.
Females lay 350 eggs during their life so a few bedbugs can multiply to several thousand within a year.
They prefer warmth but can survive in temperatures of minus 15c.

Beer Is Good For The Bones.
Older women could guard against osteoporosis in later life by drinking a pint of beer a day.
A new study has shown that ale is an ideal source of dietary silicon, which is crucial in the formation of new bone.
Bone is continuously being lost and reformed and silicon is vital for helping to renew it.
Although silicon is contained in some plants and beans, one of the richest and most easily absorbed sources is beer, as it is an ingredient of the malt used in the brewing process.
Several previous studies have shown that there is a direct correlation between the amount of silicon in a person’s diet and their bone mineral density.

Alcohol May Reduce Risk Of Liver Inflammation.
A study in Japan claims that drinking two pints of beer or a couple of large glasses of wine five times a week can reduce the chances of a fatty liver by up to 60%.
And moderate amounts of alcohol can decrease inflammation of liver cells.

Drugs To Erase All Emotions.
I worry that we live in a Prozac society in which any extreme of emotion is considered unhealthy.
A rounded person experiences a range of emotions, be they happy, sad, jealous, lonely and afraid, whatever.
All emotions are welcome and absolutely OK.
That we should take some kind of drug to erase our emotions and be in a permanently tranquillised state of equilibrium is ridiculous.
( Sharon Stone )