Advanced Directives : Being in control of your destiny continued …

Following on from last two week’s blog relating to the value of setting up an Advanced Directive, it is worth noting the 1990 Patient Self-Determination Act (PSDA) in the United States, which encourages everyone to decide now about the types and extent of medical care they want to accept or refuse if they become unable to make those decisions due to illness.

Taking responsibility for this type of information is not just about giving yourself more peace of mind, it also helps those closest to you should the unforeseen strike and breaks down the communication barriers between the patient, doctors and loved ones. It also serves as a proactive tool which prompts people to think about difficult topics and guides them once they have identified how best they wish to be treated.

Nowadays health care institutions are required to ask patients if they have an Advance Directive document or would like to fill one out, and in the UK there is also the Mental Capacity Act 2005 which is designed to protect people who can’t make decisions for themselves or lack the mental capacity to do so.

An Advance Directive tends to maximise the independence and comfort of patients and makes it easier for family members to know exactly what you would like without doubting or putting themselves in an awkward position.

Each form is different, clearly influenced by the individual and their preferences, based on religion, cultures and backgrounds.

In 2007 a woman in Canada gave birth to sextuplets which led to a battle between religion and medicine, between the children’s right to life and their parents’ right to practise their religious beliefs. Two of the babies, born 15 weeks early, died. The parents, who are both Jehovah’s Witnesses, refused to allow blood transfusions, in accordance with their faith, and three of the babies were taken into custody by social workers so they could be given the treatment.

Custody has now been returned to the parents, who have not been named, but they are angry at the intervention and have gone to court to prevent officials stepping in again. Read more …

All these factors are taken into consideration in creating an effective document tailored by the individual. We are all different and as such no two documents can be the same. Taking the time to discuss your preferences helps you and those around you.

In planning ahead, it’s easier to determine the medical care you prefer, avoid unnecessary stress, pain and spare your loved ones and caregivers the decision making during moments of crisis. You also make it easier and avoid the misunderstanding or disagreements about the choices you would want people to make on your behalf.

Speak to your doctor or nurse today.

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A little about the NHS…

NHS Strike over 1% pay-rise- Fair pay the say …

The NHS as we know it was started in 1948. Hospitals, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, opticians and dentists all came together to provide free health care service. It was created to ensure that good healthcare would be available to anyone and everyone. It was not about who could afford it.

Throughout the years the NHS has headed numerous breakthroughs from Francis Crick and James D Watson, scientists from Cambridge university, discovering the structure of DNA which acted as the stepping stone in studying diseases caused by defective genes to the first successful bone marrow transplant on a child in 1979 and much later the world’s first liver kept alive outside the human body being successfully transplanted.
The NHS has done an enormous amount in terms of improving healthcare for all, and it continues to do so and grow accordingly. The number of professionally qualified clinical staff within the NHS has risen by 16.1 per cent since 2003. This rise includes an increase in doctors of 34.4 per cent; a rise in the number of nurses of 6.8 percent; and 17.4 per cent more qualified ambulance staff.

When the NHS was launched in 1948, it had a budget of £437 million (roughly £9 billion at today’s value). For 2012/13, it was around £108.9 billion.

Last Monday (13) paramedics, midwives, nurses and other NHS workers staged a four hour strike spurred on by the government’s refusal to give them a one percent pay rise. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt explained why they couldn’t give a pay rise. “Everyone is going to get the 1% but what we have said is we can’t afford to give the 1% to the people who are already getting an increase of 3% through their increment.”

For the first time in history all unions joined the strike at the same time. In 2012 doctors went on a strike with regards to their pensions. In 1988 nurses went on strike over working hours and ambulance crews took industrial action between 1989 and 1990. But this is the first national walkout over pay for 32 years.

According to NHS staff, their pay has been cut by 12%-15% since 2010. They deem it unfair and disrespectful.

About 400,000 NHS staff and other trade unions joined in making it the biggest strike in healthcare’s history. For the first time in 133 years the Royal College of Midwives joined in.

There will be various forms of industrial action throughout the week with a national protest on Saturday organised by the TUC under the banner ‘Britain Needs A Pay Rise’.

Members of the society of Radiographers joined in on the existing strike from the NHS regarding the refusal of the 1% pay rise earlier yesterday 20/10. The strike started from 9:00 to 13:00pm, and follow a work-to-rule policy for the rest of the wee. Radiographers say it wont affect the healthcare of their patients.

The NHS staff as a whole feel they have got to the stage that they feel there is no alternative than to continue with the strike.

The facts speak for themselves. Although to date these strikes have not affected overall health care, the message is clear. What are your views on the strike? Should there be a 1% pay rise or not? Please share your views.

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Advanced Directives : Being in control of your destiny

Why creating an Advanced Directive is a good idea.

When Michael Schumacher hit his head in a tragic skiing accident in December 2013 he suffered serious head injuries which left him in a medically induced coma. This kind of unforeseen accident is exactly what leads us to start thinking about what medical treatment any one of us would prefer in situations such as these.

Without doubt we all think about ‘what would happen if?’ fleetingly at some point or another. We may even discuss it with friends and family, half joking that they need to remember how we want to be treated should our own medical decisions be something we can no longer take.

There is no time like the present to do something constructive about this. Finding out exactly what to do however can be a challenge. In this two part blog we will be discussing the best course of action to ensure your wishes are fulfilled, starting with establishing an Advance Directive to be kept with your medical file.

So what are Advance Directives?

Advance Directives are clear instructions left by an individual on what treatments they want in case they are in a life threatening condition.

If someone has a heart attack and his heart stops, if the person has left clear instructions that he does not want to be resuscitated (DNR) it has to be respected no matter what the situation is.

It also covers decisions about treatments. It gives detailed information from their doctors regarding various health topics and how to improve their quality of life should something happen to them. From serious illnesses and life threatening situations such as a stroke, lung failure, dementia through to accidents.

Who will speak for them?

An Advance Directive states clearly what the patient wants in terms of their medical condition or to whom they have given power of attorney, the person who can also make decisions for them.

It is important to have an Advance Directive document on file with your medical records which acts as an important healthcare tool.

In filling a form there are different sections which cover different topics. You will come across topics such as:

•  Power of attorney for health care – Someone who is allowed to make decision on your behalf when you no longer can.
• Living trust – I want the life sustaining treatments or I do not want life-sustaining treatment.
• Wishes if you have a terminal condition – I do not want artificial nutrition and hydration.
• Wishes if you are in a persistent vegetative state – I want to be kept free of pain even if such care prolongs or shortens my life.
• Organ donations – I want to donate all my organs and tissues.
• Autopsy – I do not want an autopsy.
• And so on..

Filling out the actual form is quite straightforward. Doctors and nurses can work together with patients and their families to agree on a suitable plan that not only caters to the medical needs of the patient but also takes their values and preferences into account.

Once the form is complete you should take copies. One copy should be kept in your medical file but you can also keep a hard or soft copy for yourself or a trusted family member or spouse.

Next week we will go into further detail regarding setting up Advanced Directives. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact us.

To Tweet or not to Tweet and life without Facebook

No one would deny that social media has created the biggest social shift since the industrial revolution. The two biggest game-changers to date have been Facebook and Twitter both of which started life in slightly different versions to their now well-known platforms.

Facebook, which was launched in February 2004 and developed by 23 year old Mark Zuckerberg, was not a totally original concept. Prior to Facebook there was Facesmash which was started in 2000, and centred on the concept of a game based on pictures. The way it worked was simple. Compare two students’ pictures side by side and pick who was hot or not. A bit shallow but a trend many recent apps still adhere to, think tinder, lovoo and badoo. Facebook came on the scene, and the rest as they say, is history!

According to Statisticbrain the total number of monthly active Facebook users are 1,310,000,000. In 2008 Facebook had 100 million users and as of March 2013 had 1.11 Billion. Facebook filed for a $5 billion IPO on February 1st 2012 and valued the company at $104 billion.

Twitter on the other hand started life as an SMS mobile phone-based platform but over the years it grew into a web platform. It was co-founded by web developer Jack Dorsey and three other founders; Evan Williams, Biz Stone and Noah Glass. Created in March 2006, it launched in July 2006.

The main ideology behind Twitter was to create a platform of communication for businesses but again as it grew it evolved to something for the general public, businesses and individuals.

It allows users to send and read 140 character messages (tweets) which can include sentences, links to websites, mentions (tagging fellow users) videos, pictures and hashtags.

Registered users can post, favourite and re-tweet tweets but unregistered people can only read them.

According to Statisticbrain, there are a 645,750,000 total number of active registered Twitter users and 9,100 tweets are tweeted every second.

These figures alone clearly demonstrate that both Facebook and Twitter have become important digital assets to those who own accounts. Something which I had not really given much thought to until recently when I accidentally changed my personal profile to a fan page. I instantly thought I had lost everything. Let me elaborate.

I have been a member of Facebook since 2008. I have uploaded pictures, shared and been tagged in various pictures and posts since then. Without realising it Facebook had become an online archive and album for me. Pictures of the birth of my god-children, nephews, nieces, graduation and concerts are all on there. But I never valued them as much as I should till I thought I had lost them for good. Thankfully Facebook support team came to my rescue and restored the page from a fan page to a profile again and that is when I realised, how in the blink of an eye all those memories could have vanished. I had not stored them on an online drive or a drive at home because in my head I thought my Facebook account would always be there.

It certainly made me realise the value of properly storing all these memories.
Most of online storage facilities are free such as Dropbox and iCloud. Depending on the space or bytes you require, you might decide to buy more space on these drives.

All your relevant information regarding your Facebook; passwords, security questions and your pictures can all be saved in your E-vault. It also serves as a backup system for relevant information stored. For example, if your computer crashed and your documents are saved on an external drive you wouldn’t panic or if your Facebook account got deleted all those pictures wouldn’t vanish for good.Some of these storage facilities such as Planned Departure go a step further in terms of their clients delegating beneficiaries who can have access to this information in case something happened and you could no longer access or manage your account.

Storing those memories may be something you only think about doing when you have lost them, as Donald Rumsfeld said ‘Think ahead, don’t let day-to-day operations drive out planning.’ If you found this interesting and insightful please share it or leave a comment.