A CARER hit an elderly nursing home resident under her care because she thought he was lunging at her.
Valerie Stone, 49, told a stunned colleague “he wasn’t going to hit me first” after she struck 79-year-old Roy Brown in the face.
It came just months after she had shouted at the dementia patient as she was trying to help him in his room.
Colleagues eventually became concerned about the carer – who suffers from mental health and weight-related physical problems herself – and reported her to management at the Braid Hills Nursing Centre in Edinburgh.
She was suspended from her position at the BUPA care home in January while police were contacted and an investigation got underway.
SCOTTISH doctors have pocketed an estimated £1.5 million by charging grieving families to have cremation certificates signed.
The £71 so-called “ash cash” charge allows a deceased person’s body to be released for cremation.
Both GPs and hospital doctors each charge for the form-filling exercise, leaving the deceased person’s relatives to fork out £142.
But most mourning families have no idea they are paying the fee, which doctors could choose to waive if they wanted to, as it is often charged to the funeral director who buries it among the final bill. Continue reading →
A TEN-week-old baby boy was forced to suffer for over a week with a brain haemorrhage after a man fell on stairs while holding him.
Robin Hay, 33, was meant to be looking after the tot – who cannot be named – at an address in Edinburgh last year.
Worried relatives noticed veins were bulging from the baby’s head, but Hay shrugged off their concerns and failed to explain the youngster’s head injury.
A health visitor making a routine check was not told about the tumble either.
A second medical visitor flagged up the injuries a week later and told Hay to take the baby to the capital’s Royal Hospital for Sick Kids “immediately.”
Instead, Hay first went back to his own home before taking the injured baby to hospital. Continue reading →
A PERVERT nurse has been struck off for hypnotising patients so he could grope them.
Iain Balsillie, 40, from Dunfermline, had already been fired from B Sky B where he worked as an occupational nurse after two female workers at the call centre claimed he tried to put them in a trance before touching them up.
Balsillie used the trigger words “drop for me” in an attempt to make women fall into his arms, after which he would grab them by the breasts and, in one case, lower the patient’s head on to his private parts.
One patient described the nurse getting so close that she could “smell the sweat on his body” during her trance.
A MASSIVE hike in the number of drugs related deaths across Scotland is being blamed on the nation’s Trainspotting generation – addicts who began shooting up in the 80’s.
Shock new figures showed a rise of people in their late 30s to early 40s – mostly men – dying from the effects of years of drug use and a lack of support services for their age group.
In all drug deaths rose 26 per cent to 576.
As with previous years, the vast majority of drug users dying are men – an overwhelming 80 per cent.
TOYS have been banned from Scots doctors’ waiting rooms because of fears they could spread the deadly swine flu bug.
Crèches at private family clinics in South Queensferry and Dalkeith have been cleared after the drastic move.
Magazines have also been swiped from the waiting rooms, replaced by signs explaining that the virus, which has killed four people in Scotland, can live on hard surfaces for over an hour.
But the doctors are on a collision course with the NHS after sources revealed they are against the toy ban, saying it simply raises public fears over the H1N1 virus.
A GROUP of campaigners chained themselves together yesterday to campaign for the release of a top doctor jailed for speaking out about poverty.
Doctor Binayak Sen worked with the poorest people in central India for decades but was thrown in jail two years a go for speaking up for his patients.
The shackled campaigners – who included MSP and GP Richard Simpson – dressed in white coats and masks outside the Royal College of Surgeons in Edinburgh.
Amnesty International’s Scottish programme director John Watson said: “Doctor Sen has worked with the poor people in central India for decades. He has won international acclaim and awards.”
The organisation considers his sentencing to be based on ‘trumped up charges’ that are related to his political work. Continue reading →
By REPORTING TEAM: Cara Sulieman, Paul Thornton, Alexander Lawrie, Lauren Crooks and Oliver Farrimond
BREAKING NEWS: A newlywed couple from Edinburgh have been quarantined at home over fears they have been infected by Swine Flu.
Peter and Jennifer Marshall, from Gorgie, returned from their honeymoon in the area Cancun of Mexico last Tuesday (21st) and started to show signs of flu-like symptoms.
Last night Peter, 37, a flower wholesaler, said they had “voluntarily” confined themselves to their cottage home while awaiting test results to confirm whether or not they had the virus.
A NEW device for patients to carry out their own health checks and send the information to a doctor has been developed in a bid to cut hospital admissions.
The Telehealth system allows sufferers of long-term conditions to have their health monitored daily without needing to visit their GP surgery.
Now, health chiefs are aiming to roll the service out to more patients in an effort to prevent unplanned hospital visits.
The personal healthcare system works by installing a small computer in the patient’s home with high-speed broadband internet connection.
The patient takes readings of their blood pressure, oxygen levels and weight before entering the data into the computer and sending to their doctor.
The computer is also fitted with a webcam– enabling the patient to have a video consultation with their GP.
It was piloted in 30 homes across West Lothian, Midlothian and Edinburgh and is now being rolled out to 400 more patients.
Nicola Sturgeon, Health Secretary, said the technology would save hundreds of people from making repeated trips into hospital.
She said: “I am very excited by the potential for telehealth to bring care as close to home as possible – in this case, into people’s own homes.
“By harnessing all that new technologies can offer us we can also make care quicker and safer and invest in a twenty-first century health service to be proud of.”
The touch screen computer allows people with chronic conditions, such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), to undertake health checks including blood pressure and peak flow breathing tests.
Raymond Bowes, from Blackburn in West Lothian, has suffered with COPD since being diagnosed nine years ago and has been taking part in the trial for seven months.
Mr Bowes, 49, had been hospitalised twice in 2007 after feeling ill and eventually ended up with pneumonia.
He carries out a round of health checks at 10am every day and said the tests could eliminate the risk of his failing health going unnoticed ever again.
He said: “The biggest advantage is the reassurances I get. It’s like a safety net. Some days I could be feeling unwell and not know if I’m seriously ill or not – it’s a thin line with COPD.
“But doing the tests every day means I’ll know if there’s something really wrong.
“It’s a really good feeling to know there’s someone looking after me on a daily basis.
“I think it’s fantastic and it has really made a big difference to my life.”
Mr Bowes’ GP, Dr Brian McKinstry, is the lead researcher of the project which is being funded by NHS Lothian and the Scottish Government.
Dr McKinstry – a GP in Blackburn for 25 years – checks the results every day and is alerted to any drastic change in his condition immediately.
He said: “COPD is a serious condition and patients can be become very ill fairly quickly.
“What we know from previous studies is that if you can get in there early you can actually prevent hospitalisation and a deterioration in the condition.
“The Telehealth system allows patients to measure their vital signs and we can look at that data and identify when patients are becoming ill and intervene.
“We’ve had a tremendous response from the patients. They love doing this and they’re extremely happy with the service they have got.”
The system costs around £1,000 to install in a patient’s home – but NHS Lothian hope a reduction in costs of unplanned hospital visits will return significant savings in the long run.
Similar sized trials in other countries have shown hospital admissions reduced by around 30 per cent and results of the roll out across NHS Lothian will be evaluated in trials by researchers at the University of Edinburgh.
Deadline Press & Picture Agency 