I am thoroughly sick of the the spin and twaddle from the Ministers of Health, the DWP, and most of the Primeministers who are being paid to work by the tax payers of this country, God alone knows what they are doing with their time because they are certainly not applying themselves to addressing and solving the increasing downward spirel of this countries problems.

It amazes me how the NHS continue to break the law to wriggle out of paying for our sick and elderly.

The Core Principles of the NHS can be summed up as follows: To provide care which is free at the point of need, meets the needs of everyone and is based on a patient’s clinical need not their ability to pay.

Tony Blair said at the Labour Party Conference in 1997 that he didn’t want his children brought up in a country where pensioners had to sell their homes to pay for long term care.

Since then approx 700,000 homes have been sold to pay for care.

This applies to sick people of all ages. These people have paid taxes and national insurance all their lives, then suddenly they get taxed again when they become ill by funding their own long term care. What an absolute disgrace!!!!!

In 1999 a lady called Pam Coughlan won her case against the NHS in the Court of Appeal and set a precedent in law for Fully Funded NHS Continuing Care. Since then the government have ignored this judgement and the NHS continue to delay, lie and cheat, hoping that you will just go away.

I am fighting for my brother who has had two brain haemorrhages, is paralysed, doubly incontinent and in constant pain etc. etc. He has been paying for his own care in a Private Nursing Home for eighteen months now and you would not believe the underhand tactics the NHS have used against me.

We have now engaged expert solicitors to fight his case which is going to cost us thousands of pounds. We shouldn’t have to do it, and on top of my brothers illness, fighting the NHS has almost destroyed me as well.

Kind Regards,

Stephen (Johnson).

So the general idea of a carer is someone who makes a cuppa or a meal for somebody or occasionally checks to see if a person is ok. Anybody who needs more care than that is ignored- kept out of sight in case it frightens newly diagnosed people.

I’m sure it’s the same for all serious illnesses, but I can only speak about MS. Local branches of the MS Society tend to totally ignore patients who are at the worst stages of MS.
Even the National Society with the latest adverts only show the lightest cases–”you may not be able to wear high heels”-and “you will still be able to have sex but you may shake and jerk about”–what the hell is that all about???—Yes the more severe end results are not very common but they do happen- and the MS society may as well be saying ” when things get really bad, we won’t be capable of helping you- neither will the NHS-nor Social Care”.

As 24/7 carers we are isolated-ignored-forgotten—because nobody wants to admit that we or our carees exist.

What I am about to say may not go down too well in some quarters but I honestly believe it to be true. The Government, the NHS and all the so called Care services would prefer it if all people at the worst end of all serious illnesses were just left to die, because they can’t cope with them alive.
This is why I am always trying to get CUK and the others to put a real 24/7 carer in front of the media-not the chosen ones they put up now who agree to work to their script. The public need shocking by seeing just how bad things COULD get if they became a carer– only then will we get that public’s support we so badly need to improve our lives>>.

The overlapping benefit rules should be scrapped.

Carers allowance increased.

More respite available and when it is offered not cancelled at the last minute.
More help available at weekends instead of carers being told to keep the cared for in bed because there is no help available.

What is the point of having a carer’s assessment when there is not the money to provide the services required?

Heating allowance for carers, they dread the winter and the cost of providing warmth to loved ones.

Free prescriptions and glasses for carers.

More information available when you become a carer

Most of all a realistic documentary film to be made similar to ‘Cathy come home’, which would show some of the problems. Because carers are the hidden ones and forgotten.

Little has changed one year on

the depth of the crisis

not been taken up with necessary urgency

social care has missed out

Budget increases not even keeping pace

With little or no support, people’s chances of staying healthier for longer are reduced.

The system survives only because of the huge contribution made through informal care by families and friends

The funding system penalises people with moderate savings, a shock to many just when they are most vulnerable

The postcode lottery is alive and well in social care

introduced by stealth, noticed only when people need help.

The current complex funding and benefit regime must be replaced and the huge financial risk to people of extended and expensive social care must be pooled across the population

The immediate reaction …..( how immediate a reaction when 18 months later nothing been done.)

All of the leaders in the field ……….What they are all agreed on is the need for a system that ends the current shameful treatment of older people and transforms the rhetoric into a reality of dignified lives.
( If they are ALL agreed why has no action been taken )

How many more reports are we to see that repeat the same information from as far back as 10+ years………..