Guernsey's rescue boat deployed to Alderney twice in two days
The case on Saturday saw it assist an injured patient requiring urgent transport to Guernsey, where they were later taken to the emergency department by road ambulance.Guernsey Ambulance and Rescue thanked all those involved, especially the volunteer boat crew.The vessel is the marine equivalent of an accident and emergency ambulance, fully equipped with a range of life-saving and medical equipment. It is on call 24 hours a day from a mooring in St Peter Port.The vessel is a charitable asset, built with public support and maintained through a combination of charges, subscriptions, donations and sponsorship, bosses said.
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The Sun
12 hours ago
- The Sun
Firefighters being called out to move more than 40 obese people a WEEK
FIREFIGHTERS are called out to move more than 40 obese people each week, figures show. And some rescues last year took up more than half their working day. 2 Crews were required to help move overweight people in their homes so often that training now involves 250kg dummies and specialist lifting equipment. Figures show fire crews were called 2,280 times in England to help with bariatric rescues — a rise of five per cent on 2023. It is four times the 489 people helped a decade ago. Last year, 289 overweight people were each helped for more than two hours, with 53 rescues taking four hours or more. Experts said increasing numbers of people could not leave their homes and when an emergency struck they needed help. On occasions, fire crews have to remove doors to assist. One of the longest rescues was in Acton, West London, in 2023 when crews smashed a wall in a 17-hour op to rescue a 315kg heart attack victim. In 2020, Jason Holton was lifted by a crane from his third-storey window in Camberley, Surrey. The number of rescues of obese people last year was higher than the callouts to save pets from heights and calls for children trapped in lifts. It comes after a survey found ambulance services spent almost £30million on vehicles and equipment to transport obese patients in the past five years. BMI threshold for obesity should LOWERED to 27 - as experts warn millions at risk of silent killers are 'missed' Chair of the National Obesity Forum Tam Fry said: 'Despite the successes of weight loss drugs, bariatric rescues will be needed for some time to come.' 2
The Independent
14 hours ago
- The Independent
Researchers discover the immune system's ‘fountain of youth' - but it has a cost
Researchers have discovered the 'fountain of youth' for cells - but it comes with a big cost. Some people over 60 years old were found to have immune systems that appear to much younger in wear-and-tear, Mayo Clinic researchers announced Thursday. The immune system is what protects us from getting sick and promotes healing. With age, the immune system's ability to protect the body from infection and disease can wane. Young immune systems are constantly exposed to new bacteria and viruses, and previous research has shown that infant immune systems beat those of adults at fighting off the invaders. Researchers now say some have immune systems that don't match their age. "We observed that these patients have very young immune systems despite being in their 60s and 70s,' Dr. Cornelia Weyand, a Mayo Clinic rheumatologist and clinician-scientist, said in a statement. 'But the price they pay for that is autoimmunity.' Autoimmunity is what happens when the immune system mistakenly attacks healthy tissues and organs. There are more than 100 known autoimmune diseases, according to the Cleveland Clinic, including lupus, multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, celiac disease and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Women are at a higher risk than men, thanks to genetic and hormonal differences, according to Stanford Medicine. Doctors discovered this anomaly in more than 100 older patients who went to the Minnesota clinic to receive treatment for a rare autoimmune disease known as giant cell arteritis. Giant cell arteritis is an inflammation of the lining of your arteries that can affect the arteries in your head, the clinic explained. Untreated, it can lead to blindness, an aortic aneurysm, and, less commonly, stroke. It frequently causes headaches, jaw pain and vision problems. What causes the disorder remains unknown. Studying the diseased tissue of these patients, the researchers found they had specialized cells in their immune system known as 'stem-like T cells.' The cells behave like young stem cells, which are critical for repairing and maintaining a healthy immune system. But, in this case, they were spreading the autoimmune disease. Going forward, the scientists hope to learn more about this link and what they observed from the patients. "Contrary to what one may think, there are benefits to having an immune system that ages in tandem with the body," Dr. Jörg Goronzy, a Mayo Clinic researcher on aging, said. "We need to consider the price to pay for immune youthfulness. That price can be autoimmune disease."
Daily Mail
19 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Dying patients bundled into ambulances and transferred in their final hours after 'cruel' managers shut hospice without warning
Dying patients were bundled into emergency ambulances and moved in their final hours after managers shut down a hospice without warning. Nurses on duty at the Sue Ryder Wheatfields Hospice, in Leeds, were left in tears after being told to ring relatives of end-of-life patients with the distressing news that their loved ones were being immediately transferred. One nurse told the Mail she was disgusted by hospice management, who she claims sat in their offices eating an Indian takeaway while nurses scrambled to hand over their vulnerable patients to paramedics. In total, seven terminally ill residents were moved in emergency ambulances to alternative hospices across Yorkshire between 5pm and midnight on a Friday evening in August last year. Another patient was discharged home. One woman died within five hours of being moved, while another two patients had passed away within 48 hours. At least two families lodged formal complaints about their treatment in the aftermath. Recalling the distressing closure shift last summer, the female nurse told the Mail she knew nothing about the decision to shut until the angry son of a woman who was 'actively dying' started berating her about his mother's transfer. The nurse, who asked not to be named, said she had since sought treatment for depression because she felt guilty about the way several patients had been treated in their final hours. She tearfully explained: 'I was sitting at the bedside of a lady who I'd been nursing for a couple of weeks when her son came into the room and started saying, ''Call yourself a nurse, you're disgusting, how could you do this to my mum?'' 'He told me the hospice was closing immediately and his mum was being transferred in 10 minutes, he couldn't believe I didn't know anything about it. 'It was really upsetting, I was really taken aback I just didn't know what to say. 'Then one of the managers came down and confirmed it. She said it was because they didn't have enough staff, but that was not the case. We had a full compliment of doctors and nurses on that evening and over the weekend. I just started crying, it was so cruel. Within five minutes the first ambulance had arrived.' The short notice closure was the culmination of a 'chaotic' few months at the hospice, which staff alleged had become an 'unsafe and toxic' place to work because of the 'autocratic' behaviour of four of the most senior leaders – then interim service director, Sonia Clarke, head of clinical services, Victoria Hogg, head of operations, Quentin Krang, and chief nursing officer, Jane Turner. Two months later, in October last year, around 24 nurses and healthcare assistants lodged a formal grievance, via the Royal College of Nursing, with bosses at Sue Ryder, the national charity which runs the hospice with 30 per cent funding from the NHS. The hospice re-opened a month later but at least 20 staff have since left, with one lodging legal action, in the form of an employment tribunal, against the organisation. The nurses' grievance claimed the 'distressing' decision to close the unit at the 11th hour was deliberately concealed from them by managers, who then 'spun' an 'inaccurate narrative' to families of patients and local news outlets that they had no choice to do so because of staffing shortages. In reality, both medical and nursing staff levels were sufficient and instead nurses say the decision was made after whistleblowing allegations about the hospice's poor leadership had been lodged with the charity. Tracey Taylor Huckfield, the chief people and culture officer at Sue Ryder, who responded to the grievance, which was independently investigated, admitted the closure was 'distressing' because of a lack of communication with staff and that some did hear about it from relatives of a patient. She accepted the reasons for the closure communicated to families and the media 'were not the complete facts' and that 'whistleblowing concerns' had previously been raised. But she said that 'given the sensitivity and confidentiality of some matters' managers had 'no choice' but to be economical with the truth. Ms Taylor Huckfield accepted there was a lack of trust between managers and nurses, whose well-being had been neglected, and the senior leadership team did order a takeaway on the night the hospice closed because they were 'flagging.' However, she claimed all staff had been told to go and 'help themselves' if they wanted to eat. She dismissed the majority of the nurses' concerns, saying 'while this collective grievance highlights there have been issues and problems in communication, it is not considered that a serious breach of the organisation's values and behaviours has taken place.' However, nursing staff, who are being supported by whistleblowing charity Protect, were unconvinced and branded the investigation a 'whitewash.' They also lodged complaints about Sue Ryder to the Charity Commission, local Labour MP Alex Sobel, West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board and the Care Quality Commission, who carried out an emergency inspection in March. The Mail understands the CQC are preparing to publish their report, which staff expect to be critical of hospice management, in the coming days. One senior nurse, who has worked in the profession for almost four decades, including 10 years at the hospice, told the Mail: 'We feel let down. We've had to fight alone to get justice for the patients, their families and the people of Leeds who rely on these services. 'Wheatfields Hospice has been all but destroyed, the majority of the experienced nurses have resigned and it lurches from one crisis to the next. The CQC have already told us that, if it were not for our tenacity, this deplorable action by Sue Ryder would have gone unnoticed by regulators. 'It's really upsetting to watch relatives whose loved ones have died or are being cared for by the hospice running marathons, climbing mountains and raising money for this charity, when the reality is large amounts of their hard-fundraised money is going on lawyers' fees as they continue to try to discredit and get rid of staff who tried to blow the whistle. We have repeatedly complained to the national leadership of Sue Ryder, who have failed us. The charity is an absolute disgrace.' James Sanderson, chief executive of Sue Ryder, told the Mail the 'difficult decision' to close Wheatfields Hospice was made for 'patient safety reasons.' He claimed that the grievance, although not upheld, highlighted poor communication between senior leaders and nursing staff which has since been improved by the installation of a new management team. 'The decision (to close) was not taken lightly as we were acutely aware of the impact this would have on our patients, but we were left with no other option,' he said. 'Every healthcare setting must adhere to strict, safe staffing levels and we were unable to meet these due to sickness, vacancies and an investigation into the behaviours and working practices of some employees. 'We received and responded to two complaints from families whose loved ones had to be moved from the hospice and apologised for the distress. 'We stand by our decision to temporarily close. We will not compromise on patient safety.' A spokesman for the West Yorkshire Integrated Care Board said they were 'aware' of last August's closure, adding that they were working closely with Sue Ryder and were involved in 'decisions' about patient care to ensure it was of the highest quality. The CQC said they 'will publish our findings once our standard factual accuracy and quality assurance processes are complete.'
