ktlight
9th February 2012, 09:59
FYI:
"Around 1.20 million British elderly people are treated as “parcels” passed around a disorganized healthcare system that is dealing with harsh spending cuts, MPs have warned.
A committee of MPs reported that vulnerable patients in Britain faced diminished quality of life due to “salami slicing of health care services and a failure to integrate health and social care.”
They also warned that if the government failed to plan to reform the system, there would be "serious consequences for standards."
Thousands of elderly people were forced to use their savings or even sell their homes to be able to cover care bills every year. Meanwhile children of the pensioners should often leave their jobs to take care of their parents.
Currently doctors and social service departments repeat each other’s work, running multiple estimations on the same patients without pooling their attempts. The lack of integration between health and social care meant that the opportunities to provide necessary help were not taken and that the situation of individual patients declined in many cases.
The committee also stressed that while the coalition government insists "signed up" to the issue of health and social care integration, it has taken little measures so far.
The MPs called on cabinet ministers to consider the funding cuts of the care services, as failing to do so would increase pressure on the NHS and diminish elderly people’s living standard.
Stephen Dorrell, Tory head of the committee, said, "It is impossible to deliver either high quality or efficient services when the patient is passed like a parcel from one part of the system to another, without any serious attempt to look at their needs in the round.”
"This obvious truth has often been repeated, but seldom acted upon," he added. "
source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225648.html
"Around 1.20 million British elderly people are treated as “parcels” passed around a disorganized healthcare system that is dealing with harsh spending cuts, MPs have warned.
A committee of MPs reported that vulnerable patients in Britain faced diminished quality of life due to “salami slicing of health care services and a failure to integrate health and social care.”
They also warned that if the government failed to plan to reform the system, there would be "serious consequences for standards."
Thousands of elderly people were forced to use their savings or even sell their homes to be able to cover care bills every year. Meanwhile children of the pensioners should often leave their jobs to take care of their parents.
Currently doctors and social service departments repeat each other’s work, running multiple estimations on the same patients without pooling their attempts. The lack of integration between health and social care meant that the opportunities to provide necessary help were not taken and that the situation of individual patients declined in many cases.
The committee also stressed that while the coalition government insists "signed up" to the issue of health and social care integration, it has taken little measures so far.
The MPs called on cabinet ministers to consider the funding cuts of the care services, as failing to do so would increase pressure on the NHS and diminish elderly people’s living standard.
Stephen Dorrell, Tory head of the committee, said, "It is impossible to deliver either high quality or efficient services when the patient is passed like a parcel from one part of the system to another, without any serious attempt to look at their needs in the round.”
"This obvious truth has often been repeated, but seldom acted upon," he added. "
source
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/225648.html