Daily Digest March 30 2015

Dementia patients left on wards for lack of home care

Patients with dementia are being condemned to needlessly long stays in hospital because of a shortage of home help care, a charity has warned.

New research shows that in the past financial year, people with the condition spent more than three million days in hospital – with the average stay in some hospitals three times as long as in others, the Telegraph reports.

The Alzheimer’s Society says people with dementia must endure long stays in frightening and unfamiliar hospital surroundings for want of support at home, and official data shows that the NHS spent nearly £900 million on the care of dementia patients in hospitals during 2013/14.

Read more on the Daily Telegraph website: click here

Babies to get meningitis B jab after breakthrough deal

All babies in the UK will soon be eligible to receive a potentially life-saving meningitis B vaccine, the health secretary has announced.

Jeremy Hunt said Britain would become the first country in the world with a nationwide meningitis B vaccination programme, after the government reached a deal with drug maker GlaxoSmithKline, the Daily Mirror reports.

The decision follows recent controversy over the Bexsero MenB vaccine after it emerged it was still not available to children despite being recommended by health advisers a year ago.

Read more on the Daily Mirror website: click here

Parents fail to see their children are obese

Parents struggle to recognise obesity or weight problems in their own children, according to research.

The study found that almost a third of parents underestimated where their child’s body mass index (BMI) registered on official obesity scales, which classify children as obese, overweight, healthy weight or underweight, the Times reports.

The scientists questioned the parents of 2,976 children taking part in the National Child Measurement Programme and just four parents identified their children as obese, although 369 children officially fell into that category.

(£) Read more on the Times website: click here

Last call for midwife who delivered record 7,000 babies

Midwife Kathleen McSherry has retired after delivering a record 7,000 babies, the Daily Express reports.

Colleagues believe she has overseen more births than any other British midwife in her five decades of work. The 66-year-old grandmother of five said ‘every delivery has been a very special moment’.

Ms McSherry began training in 1966 aged 17 in Glasgow, where she has worked ever since, and has twice had the honour of having a baby named after her.

Read more on the Daily Express website: click here