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Contact a Family on BBC Breakfast

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  • October 8, 2010 at 9:32 am #73262
    Contact a Family on BBC Breakfast

    Did anyone see Contact a Family on BBC Breakfast this morning? I think they were on BBC5Live too.

    The BBC Breakfast piece focused on the financial difficulties for parents of children requiring long-term hospital treatment and how DLA is cut after a set number of days of NHS care.

    Is this something you have personal experience of? I know how important DLA is and it’s frustrating how often people, especially politicians, don’t realise it’s not an out of work benefit. :roll:

    There’s more information about the campaign on the Contact a Family website.

    mesamb
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    October 8, 2010 at 1:14 pm #76983
    Re: Contact a Family on BBC Breakfast

    I saw the piece and was not surprised by the inflexible and ignorant ‘official’ answer given.

    To me a stay in hospital is to have a particular problem attended to, not to recieve total care from a new source. Most young children require at least one parent to be present and if both are working the family is going to lose out one way or another, to take away the DLA is just a further hurt.

    I was recently in hospital for major surgery and to be honest I found it difficult enough to get the appropriate aftercare for that never mind my Myotonia Congenita and Spina Bifida that was of no concern to the Orthopaedics Ward!

    TygerTyger
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    October 8, 2010 at 2:44 pm #76984
    Re: Contact a Family on BBC Breakfast

    So frequently down the years I have heard of carers having to continue to care for their charge in the hospital because the nursing and ward staff had little to no idea of the specific care needs or the spare available time!

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    AM
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    October 8, 2010 at 3:42 pm #76985
    Re: Contact a Family on BBC Breakfast

    Hospitals!! Where do I begin, from the nurse that told everyone on hand over I was paralysed from the neck down and actually argued with me when I said no I wasn’t and told her to go look LGMD up before she came back :x :roll: to the 4, yes 4 nurses that came to get me up one morning and were totally gob smacked when I told them I only ever have 1 carer at any one time!! :roll:

    Vicki
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    October 8, 2010 at 4:48 pm #76986
    Re: Contact a Family on BBC Breakfast

    When I have had to stay in hospital I have had one of my carers or my Mum with me as I need a high level of help that the nursing staff are not able to provide, timewise and training wise. When I am not in my own house we have to improvise and to not have anyone with me, especially at times when I am unwell would be extremely stressful. When I was admitted with a chest infection I would have felt quite vulnerable, especially at night when I was in danger of choking, without having someone on hand that knew what to do, how to move me about and understand what I needed quickly. When I am on my bipap it is difficult to speak at times and my carers know what certain gestures, facial expressions mean and what to do about it.

    Even a routine sleep study was stressful, I didn’t have my super duper turning bed, the toliet facilities were not ideal to say the least and there is no way I could have managed without my carer with me – needless to say, I didn’t get much sleep :roll:

    A learning experience is one of those things that say, “You know that thing you just did? Don’t do that.” - Douglas Adams

    sar78 sar78
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