I want to write to Baroness Barker
Baroness Barker: ...one of the most difficult things for people who have had a stroke is the ability to regain their confidence—confidence to stand up and speak; confidence to get on a bus; and confidence to have a bath when there is no one around in case they fall. It is possible to do that with time and help. One of the key points in effective rehabilitation in the future will be the extent to which...
Baroness Barker: ..., and 24-hour cleaning services. The noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, gave an example; I shall give another. A few years ago, a friend of mine who was in a major London teaching hospital went for a bath and returned to find that her bed had been given to, and was occupied by, another patient. Bed occupancy rates are extraordinarily high in some of our major hospitals. We do not want...
Baroness Barker: ...a difficult and sensitive issue that requires skill and judgment—one for which social care staff need thorough training. In the review of local authorities' information given being conducted by Bath, it has emerged that many people working in children's departments now are asking for training to enable them to deal with such tasks. If personal data are supplied by a third party in the...
Baroness Barker: ...been motivated by a wish to empower patients. I confess that during our discussions the Government were slightly unlucky in that they caught me at a time when a friend who was in hospital took a bath only to return to find someone else in her bed. That rather coloured my views of some of the speeches. I also want to take issue with a remark made in another place on 19th March. The Minister...
Baroness Barker: ...for a rare opportunity to focus on the issue of social care. All too often, we concentrate on the far more dramatic and emotive problems of the NHS. The diminution of social care services such as bathing, domiciliary care or handy person schemes do not command the headlines in the same way as waiting times for surgery or time spent on trolleys in accident and emergency departments. But...
Baroness Barker: ..., there has been a great deal of discussion about the extent to which it is possible in practice to differentiate personal care from health care. Assistance with intimate tasks such as washing, bathing, dressing and toileting have always been a part of nursing care. When a person is unable to perform such routine tasks of daily living, there is usually an underlying physical cause....
Baroness Barker: ...people with moderate disabilities having to pay for the help they need, such as home help, than was ever the case in the past? The noble Lord, Lord Morris, raised a very important question: is a bath a social bath or a medical bath? It is neither; it is a human right. That is a most important answer. When the Human Rights Act 1998 comes into force later this year, many of the issues which...
Baroness Barker: ...be determined early in the morning. For example, I worked with one group of lay assessors who made very early visits. They looked at how long it took for hot water to come through the taps to fill baths, and so on. We have just been talking about the qualitative standards which are in Fit for the Future? I actually do believe that many of them will be best tested by out-of-hours...