Daily Archives: 25 Oct 2017

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

25 Oct 2017

Posted under

Accountability, Austerity cuts, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Comments

4 Comments

“Get paid £1,000 a month to care for NHS patients in your spare room in drastic bid to tackle bed-blocking crisis”

No, it isn’t a sick joke – it’s in all mainstream newspapers:

Guardian:

“…The financial model is still to be finalised. Thirkettle said rooms would be rented out to funders at about £100 a night, with half going to the host. The rest would be used to pay for the care services required and a margin kept by the company as profit. He said the assumption was that it would be jointly funded by the NHS and councils. “We may also look to take self-funding patients who pay us directly.” For patients who are prepared to pay the option would be presented by a hospital’s discharge team alongside existing options such as nursing homes, he said.

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/25/nhs-to-pilot-airbnb-type-scheme-for-patients-recovering-from-surgery

Daily Mirror:

“… Campaigners and clinicians argue that lodging frail and vulnerable patients with members of the public in return for cash is ripe for abuse. …”

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paid-1000-month-care-nhs-11409267

Telegraph:

“… In return for fees of up to £1,000 a month, hosts are asked to ‘welcome the patient, cook three microwave meals a day, and offer conversation,’ the Health Service Journal (HSJ) has discovered. …”

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/10/25/homeowners-offered-1000-host-nhs-patients-spare-rooms-airbnb/

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

25 Oct 2017

Posted under

Accountability, Austerity cuts, Economy, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

“People want higher taxes for increased public spending, says poll”

“Nearly two-thirds of the public say government spending should increase even if that means higher taxes as support for austerity fades, according to research.

These are among the findings of a survey in Deloitte’s annual The State of the State report, which looked at changing attitudes to public spending.

The study, compiled by Ipsos Mori, found 63% of those surveyed were in favour of increasing government spending on public services, even if that means increases to some taxes.

This has risen from 59% in the same survey last year.

Rebecca George, lead public sector partner at Deloitte, said: “The chancellor was right to warn that people are growing weary of the long slog of austerity.

“This data shows people less convinced of the need to bring down public spending and increasingly seeing the effects of cuts in their everyday lives.” …”

http://www.publicfinance.co.uk/news/2017/10/people-want-higher-taxes-increased-government-spending-says-poll

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

25 Oct 2017

Posted under

Accountability, EDDC, Environment (local), Exmouth, Grenadier

Wildlife refuges on River Exe agreed – will it affect water sports?

Will this affect the watersports centre and, if so, will EDDC effect a covenant on its land to allow for it?

“… The Exmouth site covers an area on the east side of the River Exe, running from a point west of Exmouth Leisure Centre up to a point west of Lympstone Manor. …

“We are now calling on the wide range of Estuary users for their co-operation and support as we ask them to avoid a very small part of the Exe Estuary – all year round at Dawlish Warren’s refuge and from mid-September to end of December at Exmouth’s refuge.”

The refuges are part of the Exe Estuary Special Protection Area, which regularly provides space for 20,000 birds to rest and feed.

East Devon District Council, Teignbridge District Council and Exeter City Council must legally prevent disturbance to birds and deterioration of their habitats [though this may or may not continue after Brexit when the UK is freed from EU regulations].”

http://www.exmouthjournal.co.uk/news/wildlife-refuges-given-green-light-in-exmouth-and-dawlish-warren-1-5249723

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

25 Oct 2017

Posted under

Accountability, EDDC, Exmouth, Grenadier, Philip Skinner, Regeneration

Comments

1 Comment

Grenadier in Exmouth again today – some questions to ponder

Grenadier are at Ocean again today. 9 to 5.

Here are a few possible questions to ask Grenadier or EDDC:

How much is Grenadier paying EDDC for the 125 year lease for the whole of the Phase 2 site? (Presumably this is no longer commercially sensitive information) and what are arrangements for profit-sharing (if any).

Does the designation of Phase 3 now as “mixed use” means business, commercial or residential or a combination of these uses?

Whose idea/decision was it to reroute the road? There is confusion as to whether it was EDDC or Grenadier.

Is there a longer-term plan for the area that has not yet been disclosed?

Chance of straight answers to simple questions?

Standard

Posted by

Posted on

25 Oct 2017

Posted under

Accountability, Health and Social Care (local), NHS (local)

Child mental health services “downgraded”

Guardian letters:

“Yet another report pleading the case for better child mental health services. The experts of the Care Quality Commission expressed “surprise to find that accessing care took so long”. I was a co-founder of YoungMinds, the national children’s mental health charity, in the early 1990s. Since then, I have taken part in or witnessed numerous reports and reviews published by all manner of concerned organisations. Their findings have consistently been the same: high prevalence of child mental disorders (approximately 10% of the child population under 15 in UK) set alongside grossly underfunded specialist services. In my experience, the situation has got worse in the last 10 years.

The problem is not only long waiting lists. Much more serious is the lack of qualified professionals to provide the necessary treatment following assessment. Commissioners of services, driven by government demands to cut costs, have gone about their business blindly and without any understanding of what it takes to provide a good service.

Previously well-functioning services have been dismantled or deformed under what is deceptively called the “transformation” of service delivery. Highly trained senior child and adolescent mental health professionals have been downgraded and submerged beneath a growth of needless bureaucracy. CBT has been the favoured treatment because it is supposed to be cheap, despite inconclusive evidence for its effectiveness, most particularly for the more disturbed children and their families.

Recent increased government funding for child mental health services has not been ringfenced; adult services have benefited more. The destruction of specialist child and adolescent services is a national scandal and no responsible person should be surprised to hear about it any more.
Peter Wilson
Co-founder and former director of Young Minds, London”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/oct/24/crisis-in-mental-health-care-for-young-people