The Health News United Kingdom April 24 2018
- One of the biggest providers of UK home care is in financial difficulty. Allied Healthcare, which cares for 13,500 elderly and vulnerable patients across the UK, is set to file for protection from its creditors due to a “highly challenging environment”. The company said it would continue to provide care and there would be no redundancies. Allied employs 8,700 people and is owned by a private equity firm.
- Waitrose is training up shop assistants to become “health food police” who will patrol aisles and steer shoppers away from junk food. The move will be rolled out at dozens of stores across the UK this year, and is designed to encourage shoppers to load their trolleys with healthy options including Waitrose’s new ‘Good Health’ range of food. It comes as half of shoppers admitted that they didn’t feel on top of their health in a survey, with a third saying they didn’t have enough time to focus on their health.
- A report released by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance shows that new mums and pregnant women in 23% of the UK have no access to specialist perinatal mental health services. It is thought that 1 in 5 women develop a mental illness during pregnancy, or in the first year after their baby is born.
News on Health Professional Radio. Today is the 24th of April 2018. Read by Tabetha Moreto.
http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-43850046
One of the biggest providers of UK home care is in financial difficulty. Allied Healthcare, which cares for thirteen thousand five hundred elderly and vulnerable patients across the UK, is set to file for protection from its creditors due to a “highly challenging environment”. The company said it would continue to provide care and there would be no redundancies.
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Allied employs eight thousand seven hundred people and is owned by a private equity firm.
The home care visits it arranges help people live independently and can include cooking and cleaning, managing medication and overnight stays. Allied, which also offers learning disabilities support services, has one hundred fifty contracts with local authorities in England, Scotland and Wales.
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Allied said there will be no redundancies or branch closures as a result of the CVA plan being implemented.
Changes to the Care Act, which came into effect in two thousand fifteen, means that if a provider like Allied were to stop trading, local authorities would step in to protect individuals receiving care.
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Last year, HMRC ruled carers sleeping overnight should be paid the national minimum wage for all hours, as opposed to a flat rate, and that social care providers will be required to make backdated payments for these stays.
Waitrose is training up shop assistants to become “health food police” who will patrol aisles and steer shoppers away from junk food. The move will be rolled out at dozens of stores across the UK this year, and is designed to encourage shoppers to load their trolleys with healthy options including Waitrose’s new ‘Good Health’ range of food. It comes as half of shoppers admitted that they didn’t feel on top of their health in a survey, with a third saying they didn’t have enough time to focus on their health.
Once trained up by qualified nutritionists, shop assistants will advise and direct customers who ask towards healthier choices on the shop floor free of charge. Waitrose said, for example a shopper deciding on a meal to cook for supper might be advised to buy quinoa instead of rice.
They will also be trained to suggest recipes to shoppers, and advise them on how to read food labels and where they can find reliable sources of nutrition information.
Research shows that shoppers tend to reach for unhealthy options in supermarkets if they do their shopping while hungry. For example participants in a Cornell University study who were hungry purchased more high-calorie products, according to the researchers. On average, hungry people purchased five point seven high-calorie products, while the group that ate before shopping bought three point nine high-calorie products. Retailers including Tesco and Boots have banned junk food at tills after experts warned it was fueling obesity.
A report released by the Maternal Mental Health Alliance shows that new mums and pregnant women in twenty four percent of the UK have no access to specialist perinatal mental health services. It is thought that one in five women develop a mental illness during pregnancy, or in the first year after their baby is born.
While the lack of support in twenty four percent of the country is deeply problematic, there has been some progress since the last time perinatal mental health provision was analysed and mapped in two thousand fifteen. Welsh local health boards have rapidly improved services in some areas after receiving money from the Welsh Government and NHS England has developed specialist services after receiving new Government money for perinatal mental health provision. However, no funding has been made available for services in Scotland and Northern Ireland to date.
In response to the report, Doctor Trudi Seneviratne, Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists’ perinatal faculty, said “There has been an improvement in the provision of service across the UK in recent years, but these new maps show that a quarter of the UK still have no services. Some areas will benefit from NHS England’s mental health plan which invested three hundred sixty five million pounds in new perinatal services.
