Alzheimer's Disease is a physical disease which causes a progressive decline in the abilities to remember, learn, understand, communicate and reason.  It is the most common type of dementia and was first described a century ago by Alois Alzheimer, a German neurologist.  'Coronation Street' fans that have been closely following the Mike Baldwin storyline, played by Johnny Briggs, will realise it is just that - a storyline.  Sadly, for many people in our region Alzheimer's Disease, and other forms of dementia, is a fact of everyday life and affects every street.
  Dementia has a ripple effect on family members, friends and neighbours.  This fits in with the theme of this year's Alzheimer's Awareness Week, "Dementia Affects Everyone".  Following a two-day Greater Manchester TV special the Society's helpline received over 5,000 calls.  During awareness week the Society is promoting a full programme of events throughout South Lakeland to ensure that as many people as possible have a chance to participate, learn about our work and give us their support.
  Many people are surprised to learn that Alzheimer's Disease is just one form of dementia and that the Alzheimer's Society offers help to people with other forms of dementia, and support for their carers.  The South Lakeland branch of the Society is housed in new quarters on the top floor of Stricklandgate House, 92 Stricklandgate, Kendal LA9 4PU. Telephone 01539-741631.  Open Monday to Friday from 9 am to 5 pm.  A lift is available for those who cannot manage the stairs.
  The Wednesday Club, which meets monthly for younger people with dementia and their carers is celebrating its first anniversary in July.  The club meets in Benson Green Day Centre at Kendal and is proving to be a great success and provides facilities for all of South Lakeland.
  The Alzheimer's Society will be hosting a street collection and Coffee Morning in Sedbergh on Wednesday 21st June, from 10 am to 12 noon, in the United Reform Church Rooms.  As well as coffee, tea and biscuits, there will be a raffle, a Bring and Buy cake stall and a small exhibition to raise dementia awareness.  Cakes and raffle prizes are, as always, most welcome.  Mrs. Angela Harvey, the Society's Branch Manager, and other members of staff will be available to offer information and advice to anyone that requires it.  Please come along and support the event.

  In the April edition of LOOKAROUND, we were able to report that a generous grant had been received from Sedbergh and Kirkby Lonsdale Neighbourhood Forum, together with a gift from an anonymous donor, which enabled Sedbergh Pepperpot Club to purchase a glockenspiel for the use of the Pepperpot Music Makers.
The good news this month is that a further grant has been received! A sum of £100 has kindly been awarded to Sedbergh Pepperpot Club by Sedbergh United Charities and Widows Hospital to cover the cost of the sweatshirts with the Pepperpot logo which the Music Makers are seen happily wearing in the photograph. We very much appreciate this generous help.
  Sportsprint of Kendal produced the sweatshirts for the youngsters at a special price, so we are very grateful to them too.
  Not only did the grant from Sedbergh United Charities cover the cost of the sweatshirts, but there is something left over which will go towards the performance of The Midnight Thief which the primary-aged Music Makers will perform in St Andrew's Church at 10.30 am on Saturday June 17th during St Andrew's Festival. Please come!
  For further details about Sedbergh Pepperpot Club, including Pepperpot Music Makers, please get in touch with Shirley Smith (015396 21196).
More stories appear here.

  Because Labour kept to the Tory spending plans for the first 3 years after the 1997 election, it was only in 2000 that more money was put in to the NHS - and very welcome it was, after years of inadequate funding. Waiting times had continued to rise; the UK had fewer doctors per head of population than most European countries (and still does); and we spent under 7% of our GNP on health compared with 8-10% in most parts of Europe and 15% in the USA. The budget for the current year is £76 billion - twice what it was in 1997. This sounds a lot, but is only about £1300 per person per year or £25 per week - very good value for a comprehensive health care service from the 'cradle to the grave'.
  In March 2005 the government launched a document 'Creating a patient-led NHS-delivering the NHS plan'. This document, which I doubt if many of the public have read, states that "this moves from a 'patient-centred NHS' to a 'patient-led NHS' "-"the ambition is to move from a service that does things to and for its patients to one that is patient-led - these changes are profound - the ambition is…to change the whole system." Whilst criticisms have been made that the NHS is not responsive to patients' needs and is organised for the convenience of the professionals and not for the patients, there have been improvements over the last decade and most people in surveys rate their experience with the NHS positively.  The Consumers' Association (Which?) did a survey last year and found that what most people wanted was a good local hospital. There was no demand for a 'patient-led NHS'.  What exactly does a 'patient-led NHS mean?  I believe that this slogan is yet another example of politicians' spin and is a smoke screen to hide the government's real agenda. If you read the bulletins about progress in delivering this plan on the DoH website there is no involvement of patients.
  What we have are the stated key elements of the plan, patient choice, payment by results (PBR), tariff payments, multiple providers (NHS, private and voluntary sectors), a strategic shift into primary care and practice based commissioning. One directive required that patients who were referred to a specialist by their GP should be given the choice of five providers including one in the private sector.  How can patients possibly know enough about the different options to make an informed choice? This directive was modified at the end of last year after some discussion.  The national tariffs had to be withdrawn in February this year as the deficits from 'Trusts' became apparent. Neither primary care trusts nor GPs are trained and able to do effective commissioning of services.   The whole ill-thought-out scheme has contributed to the current wave of deficits and managerial decisions to sack staff in order to balance the books.
  On the one hand Patricia Hewitt says the projected deficits (now approaching a billion pounds) are only about 1% of NHS expenditure, and on the other she is demanding that the deficits be dealt with immediately, even though many have built up over several years as managers used creative accounting to keep the hospitals functioning.  She also attributes the overspend to a few 'rogue' trusts and poor managers, completely ignoring that government actions have increased costs over which the managers have no control. NHS managers from as far a part as County Durham, Darlington and Woolwich have said that staff are to be 'rebalanced' because of the PBR system and work going to private ISTCs (independent sector treatment centres) or the high costs of the Private Finance Initiative building schemes.   The PFIs lock hospitals into contracts for ancillary services for years - and in some cases the private provider still owns the hospital after 30 years. This is like paying a mortgage on your house but not owning it at the end of the contract.  Another extra cost was incurred because the government negotiated new contracts with both hospital consultants and GPs. Because ministers did not listen to doctors' leaders who told them (on the basis of surveys) that most doctors did more work than they were being paid for, these contracts have turned out to be much more expensive than expected - but local hospitals or primary care trusts have had to bear the extra cost. Similarly, the government initiative 'Agenda for Change', quite rightly increased the pay for ancillary staff (who have been underpaid for years), but these increases had to be paid for locally.  Time and again, the government's new policies have made it desperately difficult for local NHS providers to balance their budgets.
  The government is to be congratulated for reducing waiting lists, but one of the ways it has done so is by the use of ISTCs.  These private contractors are paid 11% more than the NHS for every case they treat, and they are paid for a guaranteed number of 'customers' whether they treat them or not.  The cost of this lunacy is greater than the current deficits across the whole of the NHS.  Patricia Hewitt's first statement when she became Secretary of State for Health was to say that another 3 billion was to go into ISTCs. Why?  We now hear of hospitals laying off staff.  They cannot afford to pay them because they have
worked hard to meet the government targets to reduce waiting lists and are overspent. Anxieties about the quality of care in ISTCs, which initially were not allowed to use NHS staff have been documented.  While they may have been a useful short-term solution to the capacity problem, private providers would be unnecessary in a properly funded NHS. The introduction of competition is part of the government ideology, which they insist - without a shred of evidence - will 'drive up quality' and they are busy creating a real market in health care. 
  The effect of the governments' reforms is not to give patients a driving seat in running the NHS (even if that is what people wanted), it is to break up the co-operative NHS. In the past (before the Clarke reforms of 1990) a GP could refer a patient anywhere in the country.  Now 'Choose and Book', an expensive IT experiment, is breaking the links between GPs and hospital specialists in Cumbria and may well increase health inequalities rather than enhancing patient choice.
  Wards are closing at the Westmoreland General Hospital and community hospitals in North Cumbria from Wigton to Keswick are threatened with closure.   A recent government White Paper suggests that services should be moved out of 'expensive' district General Hospitals to the community. Whilst many people would like to be treated in their own homes, the special nurses with advanced training to visit them daily are not yet trained let alone employed. Further removal of funds from the hospital service can only lead to greater chaos as hard pressed managers try to keep things going. Two thirds of hospital
beds are occupied by people over 65 and a considerable proportion of the budget is used for care during the last year of life, so these 'reforms' are particularly relevant to the population of Cumbria, with its large number of retired people.
  The public are baffled (as are many health professionals) by the constant re-organisations, changes of service configuration, policy U-turns and discrepancies between the Department of Health Press releases (part of government spin) and what is happening on the ground, but are unsure what to do.
  On 19^th May, Keep Our NHS Public, a campaigning group calling for a halt to the commercialisation of the NHS and public debate about the government plans, is holding a meeting at the People's Hall Sedbergh at 7.00pm and hopes that as many people as possible will come. Andrew Billson-Page of SOS Save Our NHS Services, who organised the march in Kendal in February, and Wendy Savage FRCOG, a member of the KONP steering group, will speak and answer questions.
  Visit www.keepournhspublic.com for information about the campaign.