HELP THE AGED LAUNCHES NEW WEBSITE OFFERING INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS FOR INDEPENDENT LIVING

FOLLOWING research by the Charity which revealed that 25% of older people say they need help with everyday jobs around the home, Help the Aged is launching a new shopping website which features over 3,000 innovative products designed to make independent living at home easier and more enjoyable.  In addition, proceeds from each purchase made through the site or through the Charity’s offline home shopping catalogue version, go towards its work to free disadvantaged older people from poverty, isolation and neglect.

Products on the new website fall broadly into 3 easy-to-navigate sections:-

The ‘Live Comfortably’ category - which includes handy household gadgets to make light of everyday tasks around the home, such as jar and bottle openers, long reaches, kettle tippers and grab bars.

The ‘Care for Yourself’ category – which includes practical living aids to make daily ablutions easier such as bath lifts, shower seats, long-reach nail scissors and continence care products.

The ‘Move Easily’ category – which includes stair-climber shopping trolleys, talking pedometers and the latest walking sticks.

In addition the site features many other assistive technology and mobility aids such as stairlifts, mobility scooters and assistive chairs, all of which come with both a price and service promise. This guarantees that trained staff, not couriers, will deliver the product for FREE; that full installation and training will be provided, and that engineers will be dispatched in the unlikely event that the product breaks down, in or out of warranty. The new Help the Aged home shopping range also aims to offer the best value within the mobility product marketplace, including VAT exemption on products specifically designed to aid disability.

Sally Pendergast, Help the Aged Home Shopping, comments:- “Help the Aged research has revealed that 12% of older people find it difficult to have a bath or shower in their own home and 19% struggle to use the stairs.  We hope that our new and comprehensive home shopping range, featuring many great-value assistive technology products, will go some way towards enabling older people to avoid becoming one of these statistics and to continue to enjoy living independently and confidently in their own homes.”

Alternatively, to order a free copy of the offline Catalogue, or any of the products featured, call the Help the Aged Home Shopping team on 0844 557 5336  

Lancashire Business Fair

ITS BACK!   Yes, the Southport's Floral Hall will again be the venue for third Lancashire Business Fair - on Wednesday 7 November 2007.   The event is organised by the Liverpool Business Association and supported by Sefton Chamber of Commerce and will provide a valuable support and networking opportunities for businesses in the Merseyside and Lancashire area.  The event has the following:-

* 50+ Exhibitors
* Business Information and Advice
* Free Business Guide
* Networking Opportunities
* Refreshment and Meeting Areas
* Support for Business Start-ups

For further information contact Liverpool BA on 0151 709 8932 or visit www.liverpoolba.com.

Healthcare Commission Standards ~ Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust 2007

THE Healthcare Commissions latest ratings in the Annual Health check have shown that Southport & Ormskirk Hospital NHS Trust have either fully met or achieved all bar 3 of the standards against which Trusts are measured to judge Quality of Service.

There are in excess of 25 individual indicators and we have fully met all of them within Core Standards, which relate to how safely we deliver clinical care to our patients, and we have fully met all the requirements in meeting targets such as waiting times for treatment, patient choice, provision of thrombolytic treatment and length of wait in A&E.

Indeed we scored the highest possible marks in these indicators.

Within the 3rd category covering new national targets, we were judged to have achieved the vast majority of these, including reducing waiting times towards the 18 week target between referral and treatment, ensuring patients are fully involved in decisions about their health care and ensuring access to GUM clinics with 48 hours.

Also within this category, although we were judged to have under achieved our target for cutting MRSA rates, we still have among the lowest rates for MRSA in the country.

One of the new targets requires us to reduce the number of mums-to-be who smoke during pregnancy and increase the number of mums who choose to breast feed. We work very closely with the PCT Smoking Cessation Teams referring patients who wish to be, offering written advice and having a number of midwives trained in smoking intervention.

We have a number of measures in place to promote breastfeeding including written information for mothers, an out of hours helpline and the development of a peer support network as well as working towards accreditation to the UNICEF 'Baby Friendly' initiative. Despite all this we were judged to have missed this target.

We also narrowly missed the new target for the number of patients to who we are able to spend at least 50% of their stay in a dedicated stroke care bed. The various initiatives to improve timely discharge of patients from hospital will assist in ensuring in the future that all patients, including those who have had a stroke, are admitted to the most appropriate bed.

Irrespective of all the excellent work that has been done and continues to be done, because of missing these 2 targets we have been judged by the Healthcare Commission to only provide a Fair Quality of Service.

Jonathan Parry, Chief Executive and Sir Ron Watson, Chairman said they were extremely pleased to have achieved so much but concerned that the Trust has only been judged as Fair. Mr Parry added:- "We believe the score we have been given does not fully reflect the overall care and service given by our staff to our patients. All our staff have worked extremely hard to meet all the standards and to have narrowly missed in just two is very disappointing."

In the light of the weighting that appears to have been applied to the 2 specific missed indicators, the Trust feels that the grading of Fair misrepresents the overall quality of services we provide and we will be lodging a formal appeal with the Healthcare commission requesting a full review. 

On the 2nd standard, Use of Resources, we have been judged as Weak. This was purely due to the fact that we still had a slight deficit at the end of the last financial year.

However, we are currently predicting financial balance by the end of this year after delivering our promise regarding our financial recovery.