Health policy bodies and district nurses are on the receiving end of Daily Mail ire, after reports thatcare coordinators for the unplanned admissions DES have allegedly been ‘callously’ asking patients to sign DNRs.
The furore is a result of a one of the closing questions on the care plan template distributed for the DES, which asks if appropriate: ‘has the patient agreed a DNR’ in the event that CPR is required.
Health commentator Roy Lilley told the Mail: ‘Elderly, frail but otherwise healthy people are being asked, by complete strangers, to sign a form agreeing they shouldn’t be resuscitated. It is outrageous.’
Meanwhile some hospitals are getting as much as 40% of their income from private patients after the coalition lifted a cap on the proportion of income that can come from non-NHS patients, the Guardian reports.
Shadow minister for London Gareth Thomas obtained the figures for London hospitals via a Freedom of Information Act request, which showed six trusts had increased their private takings since cap was lifted.
The Telegraph reports that more people should walk, cycle or take public transport to work instead of driving as research shows those who do lose around half a stone on average.
Researchers found that men who ditched the car had a BMI one point lower than those who drove, and women lost slightly less than one point.
Lead author Ellen Flint a research fellow at London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said the study found: ‘The effects observed for public transport were very similar in size and significance to those for walking or cycling to work.’
