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MEDICAL NOTES
‘Big changes needed to prevent two-tier NHS’
THE NHS will collapse without radical and unpopular changes, a former health minister has claimed.
Those changes would include reducing the number of hospitals, setting up treatment hubs run by the private sector, and transferring power and funding to local councils, says Lord Warner, who served under Labour PM Tony Blair.
Unless these changes are made, rising demand will mean the NHS will be unable to provide services to all patients, ushering in a two-tier health system that no longer provides free universal care, the crossbench peer says in a report for the Social Market Foundation.
In his paper for the think tank, he urges politicians of all parties to have an honest conversation with voters about the urgent need for sweeping change to save the NHS from decline and failure.
The paper – The NHS: decline and fall, or resurrection – argues that politicians must
be much braver in making major changes to the way the country structures and delivers health and care services. Therapists needed
OCCUPATIONAL therapists are seeing a huge increase in demand for their services.
The Royal College of Occupational Therapists say there has been a 82% increase in requests for occupational therapy-led rehabilitation services over the last six months alone.
Karin Orman, RCOT Director of Practice and Innovation, said: “Social care leaders need to invest more in rehabilitation services and drive the recruitment of more occupational therapists as a matter of urgency. ” HOPEFUL: Marchers deliver petition
LIFE CHANGERS
Keep city polio free
PARENTS of young children are being urged to check their polio vaccines are up to date, after evidence of the disease was detected in sewage samples in London.
The risk to the general public is extremely low, and although no cases have been detected in Liverpool, lower rates of uptake for the polio vaccine increase the risk of local outbreaks.
In 2003, the UK was declared polio free due to high levels of vaccine coverage, but in the last few years, the uptake of childhood immunisations including polio-containing vaccines has fallen.
Uptake of the baby immunisations has always been high in Liverpool, but due to Covid-19, uptake of the routine 6-in-1 vaccine for babies fell to 88% in 2020/21, down 7% from 2017/18, and lower than the national average of 92%, while early figures for 2021/22 show a fall to around 85%. PEOPLE living with the rare genetic condition Pompe disease can now beneft from a new treatment – avalglucosidase alfa – that’s available from the NHS.
The new drug, also known as Nexviazym, is one of ten treatments for muscle-wasting diseases that have been approved or are currently being appraised for use on the NHS in just six years.
Rob Burley, director of care at Muscular Dystrophy UK, said: “This is a remarkable advancement in such a short amount of time. Just three years ago there was only one treatment available for one group of people living with a muscle-wasting condition and one more going through the treatment appraisal process. ”
Baroness Thomas of Winchester is a trustee of MDUK and lives with late-onset Pompe disease. She said: “Pompe disease has a huge impact on my life; I now use an electric wheelchair, and a ventilator at night and for a few hours during the day.
“Speech is difficult and I eat very little, relying on an overnight food supplement through a percutaneous endoscopic (PEG), a procedure in which a flexible feeding tube is placed through the abdominal wall and into the stomach.
“I am delighted that some people will now have access to this new treatment and the opportunity to have a different experience from my own. ”
LIFE IN THE FAST LANE: Finley Davies
‘Finley finally able to be a 9-year-old boy’
FINLEY Davies, 9, lives with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and was one of the first children to benefit from these life-changing treatments.
Finley has been receiving Risdiplam, allowing him to enjoy being a little boy for the first time in his life.
“It’s incredible to think that there are a range of treatments available for SMAwhen there was nothing at all for years, ” said Rosie.
“He is finally able to live the life of a nine-year-old schoolboy and we are able to live without so much sadness and worry, ” she added. Thanks to the treatment
“ Finley now has much more strength and independence. He can now use a powered wheelchair that wouldn’t have been possible without the treatment. ”
20,000 demand the right to live
TWENTY thousand voices cannot be ignored.
That’s the hope of campaigners demanding urgent action on a form of cancer killing 11 women a day.
An open letter to the Government, containing more than 20,000 signatures, highlights the crisis in awareness of ovarian cancer, which means many women are dying whose lives might otherwise have been saved by early treatment.
Campaigners from charity Target Ovarian Cancer backed up the letter by marching to 10 Downing Street, and calling for dedicated ovarian cancer symptom awareness campaigns across the UK.
It comes after research by the charity revealed four out of five women could not name the key symptom of ovarian cancer – persistent bloating.
Target Ovarian Cancer’s chief executive,Annwen Jones, said: “It’s extremely sobering to see over 20,000 people come together to demand that the Government take immediate action to save lives. Twenty thousand voices cannot be ignored. ”
As there is no current effective screening process for ovarian cancer, knowing the symptoms – persistent bloating, abdominal pain, feeling full quickly, and needing to wee more urgently – is essential to survival and early diagnosis.
Della Ogunleye, 60, who was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2019, said: “We need greater awareness of symptoms now. By standing together our voices will be louder. ” n Target Ovarian
Cancer Support Line: Tel. 020 792 35475
LessonsLessonswewecancanlearnlearn fromfromourourequineequinefriendsfriends
HORSEHORSEPOWERPOWER
By EMMAHUTCHISON
HUMANS are flawed. We get things wrong. There are days when it seems nothing will come right. But if we keep trying, we can rediscover our rhythm. The same with horses, each can have an off day. Here are five lessons we can learn from our four-legged friends.
1. PRACTICE
Horses love consistency, they value the stuff you do every day. It’s the same with your mental health. If you get stuck in negative stories – telling yourself you are not good enough, that everything will end in disaster –then a beautiful daily practice is to learn to turn those stories around.
Find your one good thing, and write that down. Tell yourself you are enough. Do it again and again, every day, until your brain believes it.
Small shifts in perspective, done over and over, can have huge results; this is what you do with a horse. You don’t have to turn your old, negative stories upside down, just tweak them.Acknowledge the the pain, then find one hopeful thing and focus on that.
2. BE IN THE MOMENT
There is a boatload of research showing the extraordinary power meditation can have on mental health. Meditation is hard, doing it well may be a life’s work. But you can start simply by practising being present, in the moment. Horses do this naturally, so model it for us.At moments through the day, catch your racing monkey mind, bring it gently back to the present. Feel your senses: the air on your face, the sound of your breathing.All that matters is in that moment.
At HorseBack UK we often start courses with a meditation, based on this profound but simple idea of being present. If you can make that a habit, you will start to see changes.
3. HONESTY
Horses adore honesty. So does your brain. Denying feelings of anxiety, shame and grief makes them worse. Alovely thing is to step into difficult emotions. Honestly say, yes, I do feel vulnerable, or hopeless. Sit with those feelings instead of fighting them. Then, see what you can do with them. Write them down, share them with a trusted friend, take them to a mental health professional.
The more these feelings are felt and released, the less power they have.
4. MOVEMENT
When horses get stuck in the sympathetic nervous system, which is the fight, flight and freeze part of the brain, sometimes the best thing you can do is invite them to move.
Liberty work is great for this: you can offer your horse a chance to dance jangled emotions out on the ground, until they come back to a place of stillness.
It’s not so different with humans. We can think our way out of some emotions, but some get stuck in the body. If you feel trapped in negative thought loops, try dancing them out. Shake them out of your arms. Stomp them out of your feet.
You literally reset your body when you do this, letting the nervous system move from its threat state to its rest state.
5. TODAY
Agreat principle in horsemanship is working with the horse you have that day. Just because your dazzling steed could do perfect transitions last week, does not mean it can this week.
Horses have moods and emotions like us. At HorseBack we ask our horses: ‘What do you need from us today?’
Do the same with yourself. Your anxiety, or low mood, or difficulty connecting with others might have improved, and you are getting that lovely sense of light at the end of the tunnel, then the next day, you feel all that progress has disappeared.
It’s easy then to feel like giving up, just as one might when a horse regresses.
But if you say, ‘I’m working with the person I am today, ’ then you can take a gentler, more hopeful approach.
Use small steps to move forward again, building helpful mental habits, doing your daily practices.
n EMMAHUTCHISON is co-founder of
award-winning charity HorseBack UK, which uses horsemanship and the outdoors to deliver personal development programmes. Tel. 01339 880487 www.horseback.org.uk ANEW study has found that krill oil supplements can help strengthen the muscles of healthy people over 65.
Research found four grams of a krill oil supplement taken daily for six months showed “clinically significant” increases in muscle function and size, including thigh muscle and grip strength.
Krill oil is extracted from tiny shrimplike shellfish in theAntarctic and can be taken in capsules. It contains the omega-3 fatty acids DHAand EPA, which previous studies have shown are important nutrients for the body as it ages.
Dr Stuart Gray, from the University of Glasgow’s Institute of Cardiovascular and Medical Sciences, which led the study, said: “This is yet another strong indication that the omega-3 fatty acids EPAand DHAare important nutrients as we age. ”
MEDICAL NOTES
Stroke patients denied ‘miracle treatment’
MORE than 47,000 stroke patients are missing out every year on a miracle treatment, say the StrokeAssociation.
The procedure, called mechanical thrombectomy, involves using a stent to manually remove large stroke-causing blood clots from the brain via a catheter inserted into the patient’s groin.
The treatment vastly reduces disability and can cut hospital stays by months, with some patients being able to leave the next day.
But thrombectomy rates vary across the country.Almost 8% of stroke patients receive thrombectomy in London, compared to 0-3% in other parts of the country.
Despite stroke striking at any time and urgent treatment being critical, only a quarter of thrombectomy centres operate 24/7 services.Almost half only operate Monday to Friday, during office hours.
The StrokeAssociation’s Saving Brains
report calls for a 24/7 thrombectomy service, which could cost up to £400m.
But treating all suitable strokes with thrombectomy would save the NHS £73m a year.
Juliet Bouverie, chief executive of the StrokeAssociation, said: “Thrombectomy is a miracle treatment that pulls patients back from near-death and alleviates the worst effects of stroke.
“It’s shocking that so many patients are missing out and being saddled with unnecessary disability.. ”
She added: “Thrombectomy saves brains, saves money and changes lives; now is the time for real action, so that nobody has to live with avoidable disability ever again. ”
n Stroke Helpline: 0303 3033 100
