Mature Times - Healthcare Rationing

Cinderella carers live in fear, survey shows

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 10:22:50 +0100

Most carers of people with lung conditions have no practical help at all, even though they are dealing with frightening attacks of breathlessness that require frequent hospitalisation, according to a new survey by the British Lung Foundation.

Warwickshire "forcing people to pay for drugs privately or go blind"

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 12:58:47 +0100

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) is backing legal action against Warwickshire Primary Care Trust, which it believes is operating an unlawful blanket ban on providing sight-saving treatments.

Call to end paying for Alzheimer's care

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 12:42:24 +0100

National charity has given its support to the Alzheimer’s Society’s new report "The Dementia Tax - Charging for people with dementia for inadequate care: the evidence for change".

Disabled could face jail with changes to cannabis ruling

Fri, 27 Jun 2008 11:28:33 +0100

Things could get even worse for the thousands of disabled people who use cannabis for chronic pain relief if Home Secretary Jacqui Smith reclassifies the drug from class C to class B "in the interests of public health". The reclassification would mean disabled people facing a maximum prison sentence for five years.

New campaign for greater choice for NHS cataract patients

Tue, 03 Jun 2008 13:58:45 +0100

The fight to let cataract patients pay to upgrade their treatment may be a step closer to victory thanks to Dr David Allen, consultant at the Sunderland Eye Infirmary, who has argued for years that cataract patients should be allowed to contribute towards their treatment, so that they can have a better standard of lens fitted than is available on the NHS.

Call for debate as Gordon Brown pledges to make care fairer

Mon, 12 May 2008 11:04:36 +0100

"Right care Right deal", the new national campaign launched to build public awareness and support for the need for brave and innovative solutions for the social care system, have today responded to Prime Minister Gordon Brown's pledge to build a "fairer Britain" as he launches a consultation on how to fund future social care for an ageing population.

Why SHOULDN'T patients buy their own treatments?

Fri, 09 May 2008 17:10:32 +0100

Several high profile cases in recent months have shown that NHS Trusts are taking an intransigent line when patients want to short circuit the NHS system and pay for drugs or treatments not approved by NICE. Now the debate has been taken up in one of Britain's leading medical journals.

Should patients control the NHS purse strings?

Wed, 07 May 2008 09:24:10 +0100

Direct social care payments for disabled adults, the elderly and carers of disabled children were introduced in the UK in 1996. But now an expert in healthcare policy at the US Department of Health and Human Services believes that this scheme should be extended to those with long term, chronic conditions.

Woman losing her fight for sight as Kingston says "no" to sight saving treatment

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 10:46:45 +0100

Mary White, from Surbiton, Surrey, faces an agonising race against time to save her sight, following a refusal by Kingston Primary Care Trust to pay for vital treatment that could stop her from going blind.

Charities unite in a battle to save Yorkshire pensioner's sight

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 13:18:39 +0100

The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) and the Macular Disease Society (MDS) have joined forces to help an 81 year-old Yorkshire pensioner win a desperate battle to save her sight, as her local NHS trust is refusing to pay for the sight saving treatment she urgently needs.

Justice in sight for AMD sufferers

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 10:06:18 +0100

An announcement from the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) could kick-start a new era in the treatment of the UK’s leading cause of blindness, says the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB).

How aware are YOU of prostate cancer?

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 09:12:32 +0000

Some 10,000 men die as a result of prostate cancer in the UK every year, and a man aged 50 and above has a one in eleven chance of being diagnosed with the disease during his lifetime. Yet compared with breast cancer, prostate cancer is under funded and under researched, and there has been little improvement in the treatment or survival of men with advanced prostate cancer in the past 50 years.

Help Carol find a cure for kidney cancer

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:44:56 +0000

6,000 new cases of kidney cancer are found in the UK every year. This number is on the increase.

The James Whale Fund for Kidney Cancer is about to undertake the first ever patient survey into kidney cancer in the UK - and they need your help to reach people who have been touched by kidney cancer.

Alzheimers: the message for all of us from Terry Pratchett's experience

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 08:38:30 +0000

Best selling author Terry Pratchett has put the plight of hundreds of thousands of Alzheimer's sufferers in the spotlight. Here one reader, who cared for her mother when she had the disease, asks why it is such a poor relation when it comes to support.

NICE denies cryotherapy treatment for prostate cancer

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 08:12:09 +0000

Hundreds of patients on waiting lists for the minimally invasive treatment of cryotherapy for prostate cancer will be denied this choice following a decision by NICE, the National Institute of Clinical Excellence.