Surrey nurse's 'sock-cessful' idea to prevent falls praised

An NHS nurse has been celebrated for his idea to prevent falls. The Royal Surrey NHS Foundation Trust praised Ivan Maglanque for his concept in introducing bright yellow socks for patients.As a Lead Falls Prevention Nurse, his plan aims to improve the visibility of vulnerable people in wards to hospital staff."We care for a lot of elderly and vulnerable patients and are always looking for ways to improve patient safety and experience," Mr Maglanque said.
"Sometimes, just very simple ideas can make all the difference," he added.The concept is now being piloted with frailty ward patients at Royal Surrey after being approved, according to the trust.

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The Guardian

33 minutes ago

• The Guardian

Esther Rantzen hails Commons passage of ‘rigorous and safe' assisted dying bill

The assisted dying bill, if it becomes law, would remove the burden of seeing a loved one die in pain, the campaigner Esther Rantzen has said, insisting its backers have got right the balance between giving help to those who ask for it and protecting vulnerable people. The terminally ill adults (end of life) bill cleared the Commons with a majority of 23 votes on Friday, but must yet be debated by the Lords before returning to the Commons for consideration of any amendments they may make. 'I think people misunderstand when somebody says 'one of the reasons I wanted assisted dying was I didn't want to be a burden'. Well, that's how I feel in the sense that, if I die in agony, that memory will be a burden for my family. Not because I'm awkward or inconvenient, I may be both those things, but because nobody wants to see a loved one die in pain. Nobody wants that,' Rantzen told BBC Radio 4's Today programme on Saturday. Asked if she had any doubts about the detail of the bill, she added: 'I think we have got this right. Having the committee stage [in parliament], with that committee rigorously looking at every clause and deciding to set up a multidisciplinary panel of social workers, someone versed in psychology, someone legal, so that they could examine it in each case.' She added this 'makes it so rigorous and so safe. And, in other countries around the world which we've looked at because they've had assisted dying legalised for some time, it has not produced coercion.' The legislation could face a difficult passage through the Lords, with critics poised to table amendments to add further restrictions and safeguards to the bill. And it was suggested to Rantzen that peers could also choose to debate it for so long that it simply runs out of parliamentary time. 'I don't need to teach the House of Lords how to do their job. They know it very well, and they know that laws are produced by the elected chamber. Their job is to scrutinise, to ask questions, but not to oppose.' Rantzen, who turns 85 on Sunday and has terminal cancer, acknowledged the legislation would probably not become law in time for her to use it and she would have to 'buzz off to Zurich' to use the Dignitas clinic. The Paralympian and crossbench peer Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson told BBC Breakfast: 'We're getting ready for it to come to the Lords and, from my personal point of view, about amending it to make it stronger … I do think there are a lot more safeguards that could be put in.' And the Conservative peer and disability rights campaigner Lord Shinkwin said the narrow Commons majority underlined the need for peers to take a close look at the legislation. Labour MP Kim Leadbeater, who steered the bill through the Commons, said she hoped peers would not seek to derail the legislation, which could run out of parliamentary time if it is held up in the Lords. 'I would be upset to think that anybody was playing games with such an important and such an emotional issue.'

BBC News

39 minutes ago

• BBC News

'I was unable to walk, talk, or recognise myself after coma'

A man who awoke from a three-month coma with no memory of who he was, says helping others in the same position has given him "purpose". Jamil Hussain, 35, from Lockleaze in Bristol, suffered multiple seizures behind the wheel whilst driving down the M69 during the first Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. He was soon diagnosed with limbic encephalitis - a rare neurological condition that causes inflammation in the brain, leading to epilepsy and severe memory Hussain now acts as a mentor at Henbury's Cygnet Brunel health centre, where he spent 18 months relearning how to walk, talk, and live independently again. "When I woke up, I didn't know who I was or how to do anything," he said. "I couldn't walk, talk or even recognise most people - only my mum. I remember seeing her and knowing who she was but not being able to speak. It was terrifying."He said it was the "scariest" moment of his life and it was his mother who helped him through, despite medics originally telling his family his chance of recovery was "slim".The sight of her familiar face triggered a faint memory of "comfort and safety", which he says "brought him back to reality". He believes that moment forever changed the trajectory of his life."Whenever I feel angry or impulsive, I just remember that moment and think 'that's how close you were to not being able to know anything about yourself, ever again'."I could have been in the hospital for the rest of my life, waiting for my brain to put the pieces back together. I was so lucky, and that keeps me level-headed," he added. In his role as an Expert by Experience, Mr Hussain draws upon his own ordeal to comfort patients and "help them see a way through" their diagnoses."I want to be that beacon of light for others who are in still in the thick of their difficult times, helping them see a way through," he work also involves coaching staff and helping patients feel reassured by someone who's walked in their shoes."I want to show people there is light at the end of the tunnel. Life can be even better than it was before. It gives me purpose," he added.

Telegraph

an hour ago

• Telegraph

Is now the perfect time to install a swimming pool in your back garden?

Did you install a swimming pool then come to regret it? Let us know at money@ During the cloudless skies of the first lockdown, some turned their houses and gardens into top-notch private leisure centres. Former prime minister Rishi Sunak built a 12m swimming pool at his home in Yorkshire. His predecessor Boris Johnson followed suit in 2023, gaining permission for an outdoor pool at his house in south Oxfordshire – despite planning wobbles over the presence of a newt colony nearby. As the weather turns scorching, you may be tempted to do the same thing in your own garden, even if it's in the city. But should you? Swimming pools in the gardens of large country houses are often referred to by estate agents as among the top 'toys' that make up the ideal family home, along with tennis courts, home gyms and party barns. The appetite for outdoor pools in the UK tends to wax and wane. After the financial crash of 2007, demand softened as many were put off by the annual running costs. However, the increased efficiency of air-source heat pumps has significantly reduced these, and many modern pool designs tend to avoid having a deep end, resulting in less water to heat in the first place. You'll find pools in luxurious homes across the stockbroker belt and into the Cotswolds and beyond, but they are more unusual in city gardens. Small garden? No problem Analysis from Yopa, an online estate agency, found that properties with pools account for less than 5pc of all the properties on the market. And, it added, just one in five are selling. Houses with pools cost significantly more than those without: the average asking price for a property with a swimming pool in April was £490,498 compared with the wider average asking price of £267,500. In London, the average price of a property with a pool, according to Yopa's research, was £961,000. A swimming pool in the back garden will rarely add value to a property; it might do the opposite, even for those in the countryside, warns Verona Frankish, of Yopa. 'A swimming pool can seem like the ultimate property feature, particularly when we do get a spell of warm weather, but it's probably not as appealing as you think when it comes to buyer appetites for such properties.' Marc Schneiderman of Arlington Residential, an estate agency based in St John's Wood, north-west London, thinks differently. 'It's absolutely worth putting in a pool even if the garden is very small,' he says. 'Outdoor pools are pretty rare, certainly in more central London locations. On average, only 5pc of houses we have handled in the past few years have an outdoor swimming pool. With the weather in the summer months seeming to get hotter each year, those properties with pools are super desirable to certain buyers and give the house a unique selling feature, even if it is at the expense of the overall garden space.' City vs the suburbs Estate agency The Modern House recently sold two ordinary-looking terraced houses in London with surprise swimming pools in the back garden. One was in Forest Gate, in a slowly gentrifying corner of east London on the Elizabeth Line. The house had an asking price of £1.2m, considerably higher than the average £540,462 price of a terraced house in the area, according to property portal Rightmove. The other, near Wood Green in north London, was on the market for £1.6m; houses in the area sell on average for £649,466. It featured palm trees in the garden which provoked an Instagram user to coin it 'Costa del Haringey'. View this post on Instagram A post shared by The Modern House (@themodernhouse) There is no formal record of the number of private outdoor swimming pools in London gardens. However, Rob Grant, for a newsletter on Substack, estimated that there are 3,200 private outdoor swimming pools in London. He did this using data from the Greater London Authority. Outer London boroughs, such as Richmond-upon-Thames, Bromley and Havering, had the highest concentration of back garden swimming pools, although there is a cluster in more central locations, including Hampstead and Wandsworth. This tallies with figures from London Swimming Pool Company, an installer: 15pc of all the pools they have built for private clients in London over the past 30 years have been in Wimbledon where gardens are generally more generous in size. Other areas the company has worked in include Primrose Hill and St John's Wood. Savills is currently marketing a seven-bedroom detached property in Parkside, Wimbledon Village, for £13.9m, and a large, seven-bedroom house near Tooting Common with an outdoor pool is also on the market for £3.5m with Savills. Knight Frank, meanwhile, is selling a double-fronted Victorian house in Wandsworth with an indoor pool in the back garden for £3.975m. Planning rules and costs Most urban homeowners with a large enough rear garden can build an outdoor pool under permitted development rights, providing they don't take up more than 50pc of the total area. It's advisable to check with the council before contracting a digger just in case there are any exclusions in the local area. There are other aspects to consider including where the pool's water will discharge. If the plan is to drain into the public sewer, that might need permission from the local water authority. In April, Water UK, which represents the 16 water and sewage companies in England and Wales, proposed charging some households, such as those with swimming pools or big gardens, more for the water they use. Compass Pools by Waterstream is the biggest installer of pools in the UK, building around 100 a year. To date, their business is up 40pc on last year, thanks to the long dry spring. Four fifths of its clients opt for outdoor swimming pools and the average price is £130,000, although those made with concrete blocks and a vinyl liner are cheaper to install. Access to allow an excavator to reach the back garden in a city house and carry out the essential digging work is the main factor that will impact the cost of a back garden pool. 'In London, it can get quite expensive because cranes are often required to move the excavator into place when we're working in the garden of a terraced house,' says Alex Kearnsley, from Compass Pools. 'You're almost certainly looking at a starting price of six figures.' Compass-designed pools for back gardens are typically made from ceramic composite similar to that used in yacht building and are built off-site. This ensures that installation is far quicker than a conventional concrete pool. Once the excavation work has been completed, the structure is then craned into the garden in one day along with all the equipment for the plant 'room' (in reality a small, half-height shed). The challenge is delivering a pool down narrow and congested London streets using a specially adapted articulated lorry. This will involve suspending on-street parking for the day – a process that Kearnsley describes as 'good fun'. Typical town or city pools will be either in the form of a swim lane used for exercise, measuring about 12m long and 2.5m wide and positioned down one length of the garden. Families tend to go for a plunge pool of 8m by 4m, although they can be as small as 4m x 2m if space is limited. There needs to be a minimum decking space of 1.2m around the pool to allow for access and emergency exits, which are normally paved, and space for the equipment such as pumps and filters. As 90pc of outdoor swimming pools are heated by air-source heat pumps, space needs to be allocated for these too. Where space is a concern, some owners opt to install a hard cover over the pool so that it can be used as a patio off-season. Compass offers this service, which costs approximately £20,000 to install.