Stephen Duckworth is one of Precision Rehab’s longest-serving clients and recently took delivery of his fourth powerchair – a Paravan PR50. Stephen was left paralysed following an accident in 1981, but he has refused to let this hold him back. Following his accident, Stephen went back to university, qualified as a doctor, and completed an MSC and PHD at Southampton University. Stephen then ran his own business until 2007, after which he worked for a number of FTSE companies in the city in senior roles until he retired in 2018. “Unlike many retirees I am unable to garden or play golf, so I bec ..read more

More than £9 million is being made available over the next three years to give people who access social care more choice and control over decisions relating to their care in Scotland. This funding builds on an additional £2 billion investment in social care and integration, as part of the Scottish Budget for 2024-25, and delivers on the Scottish Government’s commitment to increase spending by 25 per cent over this Parliament, two years ahead of the original target. The funding for the national ‘Support in the Right Direction’ programme will enable organisations to deliver independent support ..read more

BES Healthcare, a provider of assistive technology and decontamination solutions to the NHS, has partnered with NUA Medical to introduce the novel NEST cushion and mattress as part of a “groundbreaking” environmentally friendly pressure area care solution. The holistic solution includes the integration of the MDD-compliant Kluge & Fielitz washer-disinfectors, which aims to transform the management of medical equipment within community equipment services. At the heart of this solution is the fully washable and recyclable NEST technology, which stives to revolutionise pressure area care. Th ..read more

The Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC) and the Department of Health & Social Care (DHSC) have published a new policy paper that confirms the conditions and funding for the Better Care Fund for 2023 to 2025. Launched in 2015, the Better Care Fund (BCF) joins up local health, social care, and housing services to deliver person-centred care for people to remain healthy and independent in their own communities for as long as possible. This vision is underpinned by two core objectives, to: Enable people to stay well, safe, and independent at home for longer. Provid ..read more

The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is supporting health and social care organisations to ensure they are being transparent with people about how their personal information is being used. The UK data protection regulator has published new guidance to provide regulatory certainty on how these organisations should keep people properly informed. Health and social care sectors routinely handle sensitive information about the most intimate aspects of someone’s health, which is provided in confidence to trusted practitioners. Under data protection law, people have a right to know what is ha ..read more

New research investigating societal attitudes towards hearing loss has found that a third of UK adults would feel uncomfortable wearing hearing aids in public. The research, carried out by hearing health experts eargym, surveyed 2,001 UK adults to understand the prevalence of hearing loss stigma and how it manifests. When asked how they would feel about wearing hearing aids in public, a third of respondents said they would feel “apprehensive” or “embarrassed”. Just 12 per cent said they would’d feel “confident” wearing hearing aids, and 17 per cent were notn’t sure how they would feel. By com ..read more

In its latest effort to bridge communication gaps, Spoken has announced an update to its augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) app, aimed at providing adults with speech impairments a more intuitive and inclusive tool for expression. The centrepiece of the app update is the pairing of icons with over 600 additional terms, a critical enhancement that addresses two key user needs. First, it significantly speeds up word identification. Spoken’s unique AI-driven predictive feature presents a list of words the user is most likely to say, a process where an adjacent icon can be pivotal i ..read more

4D imaging technology, which can prevent falls and automatically alert carers to a medical issue, could soon be rolled out in more care homes across England. Whzan Guardian, a UK-developed technology, is a monitoring system that uses 4D mapping technology to track people’s movement around the house and detect falls through sensors placed around the home. Pilots in several care homes across England resulted in a 66 percent reduction in falls and around a 97.5 percent reduction in ambulances called or required post fall, reducing pressure on the NHS and protecting vulnerable residents. The tech ..read more

A new multi-channel marketing campaign has been launched after data revealed that nearly two-thirds of people are unwilling to talk to their elderly parents about future care plans, saying the conversation makes them feel “uncomfortable”, “anxious”, or even “scared”. The #HaveTheTalk campaign was launched by Taking Care Personal Alarms to raise awareness of the importance of discussing healthy ageing more openly and exploring the available care options. This campaign comes after data from Taking Care revealed more than half of families are “too anxious or uncomfortable” to open up to the ..read more

Poor access to GPs and long waits for hospital treatment have led to public satisfaction with the NHS hitting the lowest level on record, a new survey has unveiled. 24 percent of people were satisfied with the health service in 2023, down five percentage points on the previous year and the lowest level since records began in 1983, according to findings from the British Social Attitudes poll. The study, of 3,374 people in England, Wales and Scotland, shines a spotlight on how people feel about the NHS. While satisfaction with the NHS peaked in 2010, when 70 percent of people were satisfied wit ..read more