Part of my Health and Social care course covered Care, who cares? who the care providers are,where care takes place, at home, hospital, in an institution, childcare providers, elderly care providers, implementing care.  The list is not exhaustive.  It raised several issues and cause for concern, accessing services. Information available and the opportunity for individuals to make informed choices.  It also raised my awareness of the difficulty that the travelling community,  known as Romanys experience in accessing Schools, Doctors etc , and in general being accepted for their choice of way of life.

 

In a case study I noted that travelling people are a strong knit community with strong morals and keep their traditions alive.  I dont think it would do any of us any harm to take a leaf out of their book. yet they are shunned.  

 

Who's responsibility is it to care, what happens when care goes wrong?  when things go wrong everyone  wants to blame everyone else.

 

The National Health Service was set up after the following report by William Bevridge.

The Report of the Inter-Departmental Committee on Social Insurance and Allied Services, known commonly as the Beveridge Report was an influential document in the founding of the Welfare State in the United Kingdom, published in December 1942. It was chaired by William Bevridge, an economist, who identified five "Giant Evils" in society: squalor, ignorance, want, idleness, and disease, and went on to propose widespread reform to the system of social welfare to address these. Highly popular with the public, the report formed the basis for the post-war reforms known as the Welfare State, which include the expansion of National Insurance and the creation of the National Health Service.

 

72 years on this is still a good system but the one thing it never took into account was, the fact there would be some people who would never work through ill health and would never be in a position to contribute to National Insurance or pay income tax.  Industrial related diseases such as Asbestosos and accidents at work or disabilities due to the use of Thalidomide a drug that this country legally allowed pregnant mothers to take, resulting in children being born with deformed limbs. Not forgetting mental Health Issues that we cant physically see.  These people and their families are being penailsed for a system that was put in place as a safety net in their time of need.

 

Unfortunately the welfare system is grossly abused, it is the people who abuse the system that are eating away our countries financial resources.  Do such people care? I don't think so. Hard working honest people who have contributed to the system for years are penalised.  Atos the private health company contracted by the government have statistics to meet to keep their contract, very often say people are fit to work who clearly are not.  I could go on and on.  People need to lobby the gevernment on these important issues. Most give up because they are too ill or tired to fight the system. In the end who really cares? definately not the government. Nor the greedy people who are not declaring their income known as benefit cheats.