The ‘Sandwich Generation’ Who Fill Caring Gap
A generation of men and women are struggling to care for children, grandchildren, ailing parents and hold down a job at the same time, according to a new report.
Read MoreA generation of men and women are struggling to care for children, grandchildren, ailing parents and hold down a job at the same time, according to a new report.
Read MoreThe government is to abandon a controversial proposal to use expert witnesses to brief juries on the “myths” surrounding rape after judges warned the plan could lead to miscarriages of justice, the Guardian has learned.
Read MoreFurious relatives today hit out at a decision to let a matron carry on nursing after she was found guilty of neglecting patients.
{mosimage}Patricia Linda Parker, 59, of Halifax, who is still matron at Laurel Bank Nursing Home, Holmfield, Halifax, was given a five-year caution but allowed to continue nursing after admitting misconduct.
Deputy matron Elisabeth Uttley was found guilty of three charges of misconduct and struck off. The 62-year-old from Sowerby Bridge, who has retired, did not attend the four-day hearing of the Nursing and Midwifery Council Professional Con-duct Committee.
A daughter of one elderly patient described the decison as “disgusting”. And in a separate development today, it emerged the home’s owner had warned other staff about phoning sex lines while on duty.
Relatives of the three ex-residents – Lily Leatham, 83, Agnes Moore, 69, and Ivy McGuire, who was 78 when she died in 2004 – said they were devastated. Mrs Leatham’s daughter, Marilyn Hartley, said: “This was never a witch hunt. It was to highlight the abuse and neglect suffered by our mum. These nurses were entrusted to care for her and failed.
“It was said that what happened to Mum was serious, sustained and systematic. If Mrs Parker goes back to Laurel Bank, I do hope the residents are looked after.”
Read MoreA mother and daughter scooped honours in a ceremony to mark the dedication of those working for Somerset Care.
Read MoreHealth inspectors will start making unannounced spot checks on hospital wards amid fears that elderly and vulnerable patients are being increasingly neglected, it has emerged.
{mosimage}The Healthcare Commission, which regulates hospitals, believes the dramatic move is necessary because standards of care for older people are being breached so regularly. It believes a “culture of neglect” has built up in some hospitals, made worse by mixed-sex wards and the attitude of some staff, resulting in geriatric patients being left lying in soiled sheets and not being allowed to visit the toilet.
Some pensioners are not being helped to eat, leaving them at risk of being given food to which they are allergic or choking on food they cannot swallow.
The Healthcare Commission is now planning to carry out unannounced visits to hospitals where families and patient groups claim there have been repeated breaches in care or dignity.
Its chief executive, Anna Walker, said: “We have been looking at this, and where we see a cluster of concerns, and feel we are not getting the full picture, we would want to go in without giving the hospital prior notice, and carry out a full check.”
A Government-commissioned report by the commission will reveal damning details how the culture of neglect has built up in some hospitals. It will also report on 23 investigations carried out at hospital trusts where standards have not been met.
Read MoreDanny Wilde collected his last pay cheque from the Tulip pork factory in Norfolk on Friday before joining the dole queue.
Read MoreThe growing number of women taking their own lives while in prison will be highlighted this week when a leading campaigner is put on trial for protesting outside a jail.
{mosimage}Pauline Campbell, a former college lecturer, began to protest against conditions in women’s prisons after her daughter, Sarah, died of a drugs overdose at Styal prison in Cheshire. She has staged 26 protests outside jails across the country. One of her tactics is to try to block prison vans as they arrive at the gates.
In January Ms Campbell was arrested outside Eastwood Park, a closed prison in Gloucestershire, where mother-of-five Caroline Powell, 26, was found hanged in her cell. Originally Ms Campbell was charged with aggravated trespass, which can carry a prison term. This was reduced to obstructing the highway, for which the maximum penalty is £1,000 fine.
A leading human rights lawyer, Peter Thornton QC, is representing Ms Campbell at North Avon magistrates court, where the case will be heard by a district judge this week.
Ms Campbell’s daughter died in January 2003, the third of six women to die at Styal in 12 months.
Sarah had learning difficulties, was a heroin addict at 16 and had commited at least 28 acts of self-harm while previously on remand. She had just begun a three-year jail term for manslaughter when she took an overdose. An inquest jury decided that “a failure in duty of care” contributed to her death.
Read MoreEleven doctors are still free to work in the NHS despite being convicted of sex and child pornography offences, The Daily Telegraph can reveal today.
Read MoreIndependent life insurance and protection specialist LifeSearch is advising people to protect themselves against the expense of long-term care for Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.
Read MoreTwo women who ran a nursing home where elderly residents were neglected and abused were found guilty of misconduct yesterday. A hearing was told that their shocking negligence had left two people at death’s door.
{mosimage}They included a 79-year-old woman who needed urgent hospital treatment for malnutrition.
An official inspection dossier exposed widespread humiliation and abuse of residents at the private Laurel Bank Nursing Home in Halifax, which charged £445 a week.
Linda Parker (left) was cautioned while Lily Leatham (right) was left weighing 5st 1lb
Staff were said to have punched, threatened, sworn and aimed lewd taunts at elderly men and women.
Incontinent residents were left to sit in a “loopy lounge” all day, or abandoned in their beds in an insanitary and undignified state.
Yesterday, a professional conduct committee of the Nursing and Midwifery Council struck deputy matron Elisabeth Uttley, 62, off the register.
Now retired, she refused to turn up for the four-day hearing and was said to have never expressed any regrets.
But her boss, home manager Patricia Parker, 59, escaped with a formal caution for five years after admitting failing to provide adequate care.
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