Decisions About Your Cancer Diagnoses / Standing Up To The Pressure

So you have been diagnosed with cancer, the dreaded C-Word and you never saw it coming, maybe uncle Joe but not you. You are young, You are doing everything right how can this be? All of the sudden FEAR takes over and your mind is fogged with confusion. Everyone around you is telling you… “You are going to be OK” but you must start treatment right away, no time to waste. You look into your doctor’s eyes and desperately seek HOPE, yes you want to believe everything is going to turn out well. Yet he can’t really tell you that but he can only share his knowledge about your cancer, stats and his experience. All of the sudden your world dramatically changes and you just really really HOPE it is just a nightmare from where you will wake up soon.

So you go home and it takes a few days for this new reality to kick in and everyone around you continues to tell you everything is going to be fine but you must submit to the recommended treatment options right away. It is CANCER and it can kill you. But you know better, you know what has happened to your cousin and your friend with cancer after their surgery, chemotherapy and radiation treatments. Your inner voice tells you NO.. You can not do this but yet EVERYONE around is telling otherwise. What do you do? Who do you listen to?

I can tell you I understand. I was diagnosed with thyroid cancer 2 1/2 years ago and I was terrified. I had been told what my options were and more less what to expect but yet no one could guarantee that cancer would not come back after treatment or explain why I had it to begin with. However, everyone around pressured me to make quick decisions about surgery dates and so on. I remember even the surgeon called a couple of times to make sure to get me in the calendar. Family members, of course, were really concerned as to why I wasn’t making a decision already. I knew my family and friends’ concerns came from a good place but I just couldn’t follow through with those options that were offered to me.

After much prayer and meditation, I chose to follow an alternative approach to healing and I embarked on a journey where Cancer had given me an opportunity to live again. I can not say I am completely cancer free just yet but I am definitely in a better place compared to how I was. I started a blog to share my story (look into my profile for link) my desire is that it will bring HOPE and ENCOURAGEMENT to many people like you and me.

Please know that cancer did not grow over night and it is ok to take a bit of time to make decisions you are comfortable in following for your healing. I really encourage you to pray meditate and follow what you believe is Best for you despite what others say. Listen to your body, listen to your inner voice, healing begins within you.

Blessings

Karen Berrios

Blogger

http://www.karenberrios.com

Decisions About Your Cancer Diagnoses / Standing Up To The Pressure

NHS commissioners risk losing sight of human cost of their decisions

The revelation that thousands of people could be forced out of their homes into residential care raises serious questions about the judgment of clinical commissioning groups (CCGs).

According to the Health Service Journal story, based on information gathered by campaign group Disability United, at least 37 CCGs have imposed restrictions on access to NHS continuing healthcare funding, which provides ongoing care for adults with a “primary health need”.

Around £2.5bn a year is spent on NHS continuing healthcare, with about 60,000 people receiving support at any one time.

A total of 19 CCGs have said they will not fund care in the person’s own home if it is more than 10% above an alternative – normally going into a care home. The remainder are imposing other restrictions. Up to 13,000 people could be affected among these CCGs; since 87 CCGs did not reply, the national figure could be around 22,000.

Lawyers are wary of a legal challenge, such as under article 8 of the European convention on human rights, which protects the right to family life.

Many of the rationing decisions appear to conflict with the NHS England operating model for NHS continuing healthcare, which says “treating individuals and their families with empathy, respect and dignity is at the core of NHS continuing healthcare delivery”.

Commissioners need some latitude to contain these costs; medical care provided in the home cannot be limitless. But the Department of Health’s guidance stresses that comparative costs have to be balanced against a person’s desire to continue living in their own home.

Overall, Disability United identified 42 CCGs whose responses to Freedom of Information requests on this issue gave cause for concern. In the last performance assessments, NHS England said 20 of them required improvement while nine were rated inadequate – proportionately worse figures than the overall national scores.

That gives little confidence that commissioners pursuing this approach have exhausted all other reasonable options for meeting their budgets.

Of course, this is not straightforward. Many of the choices facing CCGs trying to hit their financial targets are unpalatable, as the growing argument over the threshold for hip and knee replacement surgery demonstrates, while the best solution for some continuing healthcare patients may well be residential care.

But to deprive people of the right to live at home on the basis of a 10% limit on additional cost seems arbitrary and callous. It leaves the uneasy feeling that a vulnerable group of patients – many of the recipients of continuing healthcare have brain injuries, significant disabilities or are dying – are being shunted into a care home because it is an easy saving. In their desperation to find cuts, commissioners are in danger of losing sight of the human cost of their decisions.

Continuing healthcare sits on the fault line between the NHS and social services, and access to it has long been a source of controversy, notably for patients who have had serious strokes. Many families are left baffled by the fine distinctions drawn between medical care on the one hand and social and personal care on the other, understanding only that it is a device for the NHS to shunt costs on to the care system by deciding that the patient’s needs are not primarily medical.

Now it appears that those who are fortunate enough to meet the stringent criteria for continuing healthcare risk being deprived of rights and choices. The underlying problem is that CCGs simply do not have the managerial, analytical or clinical firepower to make care systems lean, efficient and integrated, or to drag funds out of hospitals and into community services, so they are reduced to managing their finances by drawing entirely subjective lines on a spreadsheet that cut patients off from care.

CCG decisions about who can have services such as continuing healthcare, various types of surgery and IVF are dressed up in the language of local choices, but in reality it is largely a matter of luck which cuts commissioners happen to choose. Forcing people to leave their home looks a bad choice.

Join the Healthcare Professionals Network to read more pieces like this. And follow us on Twitter (@GdnHealthcare) to keep up with the latest healthcare news and views.

NHS commissioners risk losing sight of human cost of their decisions

"Poor decisions and lack of compassion" reported at NHS trust

A secret medical review showed mothers and babies died at an NHS trust in the Manchester area where clinical errors, bad staff attitudes and chronic shortages were commonplace.

The review, carried out by new maternity director Deborah Carter at Pennine Acute Hospital NHS trust which operates North Manchester General and the Royal Oldham hospitals, outlines a string of avoidable deaths and long-term injuries caused by failures over many years.

The report details how a premature baby was left to die alone in a sluice room rather than its mother’s arms, another woman who died of a catastrophic haemorrhage after her symptoms were put down to mental illness and a baby who died because staff failed to identify its mother’s rare blood type.

Long-term failures led to “high levels of harm for babies in particular” and repeated warnings over years had not led to improvements.

The internal review only came to light following a freedom of information request by the Manchester Evening News. The paper said the trust tried to suppress the report and even claimed it did not exist.

On Wednesday night the trust said more staff had been taken on and progress was being made to improve care.

The report identifies “clear evidence of poor decision-making which has resulted in significant harm to women” and “real issues” on maternity wards resulting in “high levels of harm for babies in particular, which has significant life-long impact”.

Staff shortages are linked to a series of deaths, including one baby who died because antenatal staff had failed to spot its mother’s blood type. But bad attitudes and a lack of compassion among staff were also cited.

In one case a mother died from a “catastrophic haemorrhage” after staff ignored the symptoms of hypoxia, a condition caused by lack of oxygen, while medics believed the woman had mental health issues.

Another incident involved the birth of a 22-week-old baby. The report states: “When the baby was born alive and went on to live for almost another two hours, the staff members involved in the care did not find a quiet place to sit with her to nurse her as she died, but instead placed her in a moses basket and left her in the sluice room to die alone.”

The report cites “worrying repetitive themes” across the department, including failures to monitor basic vital signs, poor documentation, lab results left unchecked, critical information left off patient records, a “rigid mindset” among staff who tended to view patients’ conditions as “uncomplicated”, repeated breaches of safety procedures and little performance monitoring of the high numbers of agency staff on the trust’s books.

The trust received more legal claims and paid out more in damages than any other between 2010 and 2015, nearly half the claims relating to mothers and babies – payouts that totalled more than £25m.

Prof Matthew Makin, medical director at Pennine, said: “The priority is for all of the trust’s services to meet the high standards that patients expect and deserve. We are steadily making the necessary improvements so that patients can receive reliable, high quality care across all of our services.

“In addition to the appointment of a new head of midwifery, 31 new midwives started … across our two maternity units at north Manchester and Oldham last month.

“In addition to 58 new midwives joining us since April, the new management team is being supported by Central Manchester NHS foundation trust, who are providing supplementary clinical leadership support in order to stabilise and strengthen services on the north Manchester site.

“We have fully reviewed our risk and governance arrangements including learning from incidents and complaints, and are making progress in improving the way we listen and involve our staff to address the longstanding problems and challenges facing our teams.”

"Poor decisions and lack of compassion" reported at NHS trust

Poll: NHS decisions must be left to medical professionals, say vast majority of Britons

The survery found that a third of individuals are in favour of parliament setting targets for the NHS, with 42% opposed. Photograph: Hugh Macknight/PA

The bulk of British men and women feel the NHS has turn out to be a political football utilised cynically to win votes and need to be trusted to pros who recognize how ideal to provide healthcare, in accordance to an view poll carried out for the British Health care Association.

The Ipsos Mori survey, launched on the very first day of the BMA’s annual representatives meeting, also identified that a third of individuals were in favour of parliament setting targets for the NHS, compared with 42% who were opposed. The union mentioned the findings supported its insistence that selections on patient care must be free of charge from political interference and left to medical professionals.

The chair of the BMA council, Dr Mark Porter, mentioned the NHS was “one of the most politicised public solutions in the Uk. Regardless of whether it is the targets forced on doctors, GP appointments that are far more about box-ticking than clinical care, or quick-term, headline-grabbing policy initiatives – all of these are getting carried out for political expediency and to win votes. As a end result, patient care is taking a back seat to scoring factors in excess of the dispatch box.”

The survey of nearly two,000 folks across Britain, weighted to be nationally representative, discovered that 73% believe that political events are creating health policy to win votes, not to do what is very best for the NHS, and that 65% feel the NHS ought to handle itself without the involvement of politicians as it understands how very best to give healthcare.

The public also showed a preference for doctors participating in selections about how the NHS is run, with fifty five% saying they need to have “high involvement”, over managers (34%).

Motions to be debated at the annual representative meeting accuse the coalition government of facilitating privatisation of the NHS and endangering public well being via austerity measures but the survey final results indicate unease at political interference from all sides.

Porter cited Labour’s pledge to promise a GP appointment within 48 hours as effectively as the government’s strategy for doctors’ surgeries to be open 7 days a week as adjustments becoming lined up just before the up coming election that “may possibly seem very good on a leaflet” but “will not tackle the problems that have left GPs struggling to supply the care, time and appointments their individuals require.

“Physicians want to see politics taken out of the NHS when and for all. It is clear that the public really feel the identical way. Yes, politicians should be accountable for the working of the NHS, but when it comes to choices on patient care it is time to permit physicians to do what they do ideal – lead the delivery of high-good quality patient care.”

A Labour spokesman defended the party’s pledge on GP waiting occasions. “Only Labour is severe about investing in GP surgeries,” he explained. “We have pledged £100m to help patients get appointments more rapidly – too many are waiting a week beneath this government.”

Of these polled, 57% mentioned they were content with the working of the NHS, even though 25% said they have been dissatisfied.

Poll: NHS decisions must be left to medical professionals, say vast majority of Britons

Shell out decisions announced for NHS workers and other public sector employees: Politics dwell blog

We’re acquiring a slab of announcements about public sector shell out these days.

The primary target will probably be on the well being one. In accordance to the Everyday Telegraph, Jeremy Hunt, the overall health secretary, is going to veto a proposed one% pay out rise.

The Overall health Secretary is anticipated to defy calls for a pay out rise for a lot more than one.three million NHS workers, warning that increases would jeopardise patient care and result in occupation cuts.

Independent pay overview bodies are expected to contact for a 1 per cent rise for nurses, midwives, paramedics and auxiliary staff.

But Jeremy Hunt is set to say that the NHS can not afford such a rise, and will as an alternative make a smaller sized award which does not maintain pace with inflation – amounting to a lower in actual terms.

The Wellness Secretary is expected to say that restrictions in pay out indicate the NHS is ready to retain as numerous staff as achievable, at a time when budgets are underneath significant stress.

But actually we are obtaining four separate shell out overview body reports, covering: wellness, the armed forces, the prison service and senior civil servants. There is also an announcement from the Treasury about public support pensions.

I will be covering all the announcements as we get them, and the response they provoke.

Otherwise, it is relatively quiet. Here’s the agenda for the day.

9am: Nick Clegg hosts his Get in touch with Clegg cellphone in.

10am:The spend review physique reports are published.

11am: David Cameron continues his tour of the Middle East with a meeting with Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president.

Close to 12pm: MPs start a debate on a backbench motion saying the government need to finish badger culls.

I strategy to concentrate right now on the pay overview announcements. But, as typical, I will also be flagging up any breaking political information, posting summaries with a round-up of all the day’s developments, and highlighting the most interesting political posts on the world wide web.

If you want to adhere to me on Twitter, I’m on @AndrewSparrow.

Shell out decisions announced for NHS workers and other public sector employees: Politics dwell blog

It truly is time to make difficult decisions about the NHS

Meanwhile, an internal assessment of Alder Hey, the top children’s hospital in Liverpool, has resulted in an admission of “high-threat activity”, involving shortcuts on security and a systematic beneath-reporting of mistakes, all carried out in a “hostile doing work environment”.

And now fears have been raised that new NHS drug policies could see the elderly becoming denied advantageous medicines.

Really, that wasn’t a week’s really worth of scare stories, just yesterday’s quota. I could go on, but it is just as well darn depressing to revisit such minimal points as proof of compassion fatigue amid the jaded experts paid to appear after the sick or the 69p meals doled out to hospital individuals (I spend much more for a can of respectable canine meals).

Grim doesn’t start to cover it fundamentally no matter whether you are younger or outdated or in among, we’re all obtaining by on a wing and a prayer, the prayer becoming “Please Lord, don’t allow us ever need to have medicine or hospitalisation, or a trip to the GP”.

The authentic “cradle to grave” thought of wellness care has turn out to be the health care equivalent of Splatalot! as we scramble, dodge and dive to keep away from the un-dreamed of dangers in the really areas we considered would be the safest. So let’s stop with the sentimentality. There’s no finish to the stream of eminent surgeons and physicians predicting the end of the NHS as we know it.

The one who got me pondering hardest was Sir Thomas Hughes-Hallett, the former chief executive of the cancer charity Marie Curie, with no specific axe to grind. Five months ago he told us that the NHS is no longer sustainable in its current model. Possessing spent almost a 12 months talking to real folks in genuine communities in Essex about overall health care, he concluded that contrary to what politicos may well consider, there wasn’t a stubborn refusal to modify the status quo. Quite the opposite. When provided a nominal budget of £3.five billion, two groups of 50 folks lower spending on hospitals, medicines and GPs and reallocated the cash to help pharmacies and neighborhood providers that would support them to consider obligation for their personal overall health.

Of program, if you need a hospital, you need a hospital. But as nevertheless an additional story this week highlighted, 1000′s of people are making wasteful and unnecessary journeys to Casualty (in some instances much more than 200 instances a yr) because they come to feel they have nowhere else to go.

Medicines, alcohol, homelessness, loneliness and psychological well being issues are extremely real difficulties, but attending A&ampE is not the solution. Nor is shoring up a poorly performing, wasteful behemoth with 1 eye on the following election. If politicians want to gauge public viewpoint, allow them, in this 12 months of unflinching honesty and hard decisions, lay the patient out on the table, and tell us what our choices are. Ringfencing the reality positive aspects no one.

_{Appears like a winner: Sandra Bullock at the People’s Decision Awards this week}

And my award for greatest frock goes to…

I adore the awards season the reward of specialist talent, the recognition of film-creating as a craft, the tributes to people grafting away in…. Ok, so what I enjoy, really like, Adore are the frocks. Yes, tomorrow’s Golden Globes are all about the floaty designer gowns, the up-dos, the décolletages, the cheeky bottom cleavage, the precarious side boobage or whatever other hard-to-get-at erogenous zone is de rigueur in the eyes-and-teeth rivalry for column inches.

Obviously at £30 a pop for a babysitter and double that in cinema tickets and pic’n’mix, I haven’t witnessed any of the movies. And so, like some kind of downmarket celebrity mag, my winners and losers checklist (complete with jaunty ticks and crosses) is based mostly on the type of shameful superficiality that would make most actresses want to hit me about the head with their Swarovski clutch.

Philomena star Madame Judi’s stately magnificence is a offered. Sandra Bullock seems like a cert for Gravity, but sorry, there is Amy Adams (American Hustle) to feel of. Oh and if Anne Hathaway turns up in vintage Dior she may just pip them all at the post and take the gong (nicely my gong) regardless of not even being nominated.

But I figure the 1 to watch is Australian actress Margot Robbie, who stars along Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street. Why? Since the frock she wore to the film premiere this week was so auto-crash terrible, I texted Leo and advised him to get her buying for a new one particular. To look like a winner, you initial gotta dress like a winner.

Feminine side’s ideal off in closet with his socks

My husband’s Christmas sock mountain is, irritatingly, still currently being stored in a holding pattern on the bedside table. Santa, strung out on

last-minute web purchasing, somehow forgot to edit the basket and ended up getting him 35 pairs of ho ho ho-siery. Area, I suspect, may possibly be an issue but all the very same, I’m obtaining a bit snippy about the untidiness. Whereas my side of the bed is a bona fide floordrobe, strewn with newspapers, garments and my crumpled tax return, his side is usually as neat as Kirstie Allsopp’s linen cupboard.

I also have a vested curiosity due to the fact I have reached the stage in our connection exactly where I am responsible for purchasing his socks. And his pants. I’m not sure how this underwear outsourcing happened, and I truly did fight it at the start off, but it’s all a matter of point of view. If I feel of it as a symbol of surrendered wifedom, I feel weepy. If, on the other hand, I interpret it as a type of covert domestic handle, then it cheers me tremendously.

News that slinky lingerie sets for males are being marketed in Japan is more justification. Apparently, there is a demand among a huge quantity of chaps for frills to aid them express their feminine side. That may be liberating, but if I have anything to do with it, my husband’s feminine side, like his socks, will be consigned to the closet.

The confessions of a Gummi Bear addict

Not getting a smoker, I enable myself a tiny, patronising shudder when I see office employees clustered outside the developing, puffing away as although the accuracy of their

next spreadsheet depended on it – which it almost certainly does.

Is not the public humiliation ample to make them stub it out? And, if not, how about people monstrously

gory anti-smoking posters featuring that excellent dollop of claggy, clotted, nicotine-poisoned blood?

Properly people, judge not lest you be judged, due to the fact if you’re passing Telegraph Towers any time quickly, you may well

spy me loitering outdoors, exposed to the elements and the opprobrium of passers-by, yet unable

to relinquish the get together bag of Haribo in my grasp. You see, I too am an addict – a sugar addict, as identified this week by do-excellent campaigners, the kind of superhumans who can take or depart a slice of a colleague’s birthday cake as even though it weren’t the highlight of the afternoon.

What do they know of the misery of reaching that last Rolo, the unspeakable stab of envy when a stranger bites into a Double Decker, the abject humiliation of cadging Gummi Bears from my five-12 months-previous? In reality, when you consider of it, people ursine sweeties are a gateway drug. If I’m to end the next generation from succumbing to sugar addiction, I’m duty bound to confiscate the great deal. Mmm, scrumptious.

It truly is time to make difficult decisions about the NHS