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A draft bill on adult care and support in England has been announced in the Queen’s speech.
The issue of how care is to be paid for, however, remains unclear.
The Department of Health said the draft bill will help people “plan, prepare and make informed choices about their care” by setting out what support they can expect from the government.
The main elements of the draft bill are: modernising the legal framework for care and support, responding to the Law Commission’s recommendations in its review into social care law, and establishing Health Education England and the Health Research Authority as non-departmental public bodies.
Chris Horlick, managing director of care at Partnership, said the draft bill appears to be focusing on enshrining the Law Commission’s proposals into legislation, while the “critical” issue of how care is to be funded is conspicuous by its absence.
He said: “We very much hope to get clarity about this in the social care white paper due in late May or early June. Commentators are suggesting that any bill to enact funding arrangements may be delayed further until the 2013/4 parliamentary session.
“Practically this means that if anyone was going into residential care today they would have to live for a significant length of time before they saw any benefit from any legislation.”
 He added there is a risk that many people going into care are deferring obtaining advice because they believe that legislation on funding is imminent when this is not in fact the case.
He said: “It is important that care fees advisers take steps to ensure that their clients recognise the importance of planning adequately to fund their long-term care needs.”
Michelle Mitchell, director-general of charity Age UK, said that while a draft bill represents a degree of progress, a full bill would have been far better.
She said: “As it is, this means no legislation for at least a year to drive the reform of social care law and funding that we desperately need.
‘We accept that these reforms have to be got right and we want to work with the Government to make sure this happens; nonetheless, the millions of older people and their families who depend on good social care and who are often not able to get it will be asking why, yet again, they are being made to wait.’
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The number of men diagnosed with cancer in the UK in a year has risen above 40,000 for the first time, according to figures published today by Cancer Research UK.
In 2009, approximately 40,800 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer, a figure which has risen from 14,000 since 1989.
 Dont forget your health However, Cancer Research UK says much of the increase has been linked to greater use of PSA (prostate specific antigen) testing, and is warning that better tools are needed to help identify which prostate cancers need treating.
PSA measures a chemical produced by the prostate that may be raised when a man has prostate cancer. This form of testing has been used in the UK since 1989, and since then prostate cancer incidence rates have more than doubled from 47.4 to 102.9 per 100,000 men, although the rates have been fairly stable since the year 2000.
PSA testing is not currently used as part of a national cancer screening programme, as Cancer Research says that high PSA levels are not a good indicator of whether or not a man has prostate cancer.
Research suggests that up to two thirds of men with high PSA levels do not have prostate cancer, while the test is also unable to reliably distinguish between aggressive prostate cancers that need treating or slow-growing cancers that may not.
Professor Malcolm Mason, prostate cancer expert at Cancer Research UK, said: “Accurately diagnosing and predicting the need for treatment of prostate cancer is fraught with difficulties and there is no escaping the fact that we need a better tool than PSA to help detect prostate cancers that actually need treating.”
He added: “We urgently need to find better tests that tell us more about a man’s prostate cancer. Is the disease going to sit quietly in the background and never cause a problem or do we need to treat it aggressively?
“If we can accurately answer these questions, we could spare thousands of men unnecessary treatment.”
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The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) has today turned down two drugs for the treatment of breast cancer.
In its final draft guidance, NICE does not recommend lapatinib (Tyverb) or trastuzumab (Herceptin) with a type of hormone therapy called aromatase inhibitors for a particular type and stage of breast cancer.
 NHS Rationing It says this is because it is unclear how much either drug can improve overall survival compared to existing treatments, and because they do not appear to represent value for money for the NHS.
NICE is currently developing guidance for the NHS on the use of lapatinib or trastuzumab specifically as first line treatment options to delay the growth of advanced breast cancer that has spread to other parts of the body, and which reacts with the hormones oestrogen or progesterone, as well as having high levels of a protein called HER2 on the surface of its cells.
Once published, the guidance will only advise on the use of these drugs alongside aromatase inhibitors.
This final draft document published today follows a public consultation in February on NICE’s provisional recommendations.
Sir Andrew Dillon, chief executive of NICE, said: “Having reviewed the available evidence, our committee of experts has found that while both lapatinib and trastuzumab can reduce the growth and further spread of metastatic breast cancer tumours when taken alongside the aromatase inhibitors letrozole and anastrozole, the extent to which these treatments can improve overall survival appears to be small or difficult to quantify.
“Furthermore, independent economic analyses indicate that neither treatment combination appears to be cost effective for the NHS. Confidence about the additional benefits that new treatments provide is important both for patients and for those who have responsibility for managing the resources available to the NHS.”
He added that the draft guidance has been published on the NICE website for interested parties to respond before it publishes final guidance for the NHS, which is expected to come out in June 2012.
NICE says that if women are already receiving either option when the final guidance is published, they should be able to continue treatment until they and their doctors consider it appropriate to stop.
Earlier this month, NICE published draft guidance in which it turned town the breast cancer drug bevacizumab (Avastin) for use in combination with the chemotherapy drug capecitabine.
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The Patients Association is calling for the Government to take action to cut NHS waiting times after research by the body revealed a 6% increase in waiting times last year.
NHS Rationing A Freedom of Information request from the Patients Association to NHS Acute Trusts in England revealed that waiting times for routine procedures such as knee replacements increased by 6% between 2010 and 2011, while the number of operations taking place fell.
Across the 93 trusts that responded with sufficient data, there were 18,628 fewer operations performed in 2011 compared to 2010, a decline of 4.6%. The biggest fall was in cataract procedures, which saw a 7.5% decrease.
Meanwhile, the largest increase in waiting times was for knee replacements, which saw an increase of 10.3 days on average, from 88.9 days to 99.2.
Waits for hernia operations increased by eight days, from 70.4 to 78.3, while waits for gallstone procedures rose by seven days, from 73.2 to 80.6.
The Patients Association says the rise in waits for hip, knee, hernia, gallstone and hysterectomy operations was significant, with waits for knee, hernia and gallstone operations all seeing increases of 10%.
The patients’ campaign group published similar research last year, which also showed a fall in the number of procedures and an increase in waiting times for 2010 compared to 2009.
Katherine Murphy, chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “Unfortunately the results this year show a continuation of the trend and an even more marked increase in waiting times.
“We hear lots of talk from the Government about waiting times falling but whilst this may be true in other areas, it doesn’t address the problem in relation to elective surgical procedures.”
She said that action must be taken now to ensure this trend does not continue into 2013 and beyond.
Murphy added: “Patients are calling our helpline to tell us that they are being left to wait in agony, and that their desperate calls to the hospital for help are being ignored. Clinicians may deem these procedures to be of low clinical value, but that is irrelevant for a patient being asked to put up with a lower quality of life for longer.
“There needs to be transparency about waiting times for particular procedures, and problem areas need to be tackled.”
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Cancer Research UK figures signal warning for females
Rates of lung cancer in women are continuing to rise, according to figures released by Cancer Research UK.
The charity said today that more than 18,000 UK women were diagnosed with the disease in 2009. Rates of the disease have risen to 39.3 for every 100,000 UK women from 22.2 for every 100,000 in 1975 when there were fewer than 8,000 cases.
 Although lung cancer is still more common in men with more than 23,000 cases in 2009, rates in men have been falling “fast”, the charity said. Male lung cancer incidence is now 58.8 per 100,000 UK men compared with 110 in 1975.
Cancer Research UK said that cases of lung cancer mirror smoking rates around two to three decades earlier as more than 80% of cases are caused by tobacco.
The new figures also reveal that the total number of UK lung cancer deaths stands at almost 35,000. 19,410 men and 15,449 women died from the disease in 2010.
Sara Hiom, Cancer Research UK’s information director, said lung cancer continues to claim “far too many” lives.
She said: “More than four in five cases of the disease are caused directly by smoking. But this means nearly one in five cases is not. It’s really important that anyone with a cough that lasts for three weeks or a worsening or a change in a long-standing cough get this checked out.”
Until the late 1990s, lung cancer was the most common cancer in the UK. In 1997 it was overtaken by breast cancer, but still accounts for 14 per cent of all new cancer cases in men, and 11% in women.
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Mercer research reveals most employers across Europe still offering benefit choices
Companies across Europe are pressing ahead with flexible employee benefit schemes despite the challenging economic environment, reveals research from Mercer.
A survey of 516 firms across 12 European countries carried out by the employee benefit consultancy shows that over 60% of respondents offer some form of choice in the benefits their employees receive, and two-thirds of the remainder are considering doing so.
The top reasons cited for providing choice were to remain competitive in the marketplace, to improve employee engagement and to retain key talent.
The majority – 62% – of those asked said that economic challenges have not caused them to change their strategy and 13% say they are bringing forward plans to offer a greater degree of choice.
Some 39% of respondents considered complexity of administration and cost to be significant challenges to setting up an employee choice programme, but Mercer says this is encouraging when compared to a 2009 survey in which 58% of employers were concerned about administration and 53% about cost.
Kim Honess, UK head of flexible benefits at Mercer, said that recent developments in technology have negated many of the issues that have concerned employers about flexible programmes in the past.
She said: “Internet portals and integrated platforms have become more commonplace, and among respondents with a comprehensive flex programme, 88% of employees are now enrolling in their schemes using an online system.
“Not only do these technological advancements take the burden off administration, they are also extremely cost-effective.”
Mercer’s survey also shows that employers are largely satisfied with their choice programmes. Some 75% of respondents reported that employee feedback has been mainly positive, while 62% said the programme has met its objectives.
The majority of firms say that implementing a flexible benefits programme has either saved them money, cited by 36%, or been cost neutral, cited by 46%.
Honess said that flexible benefit schemes are most common in the UK, where more and more companies are seeking to mark themselves out as the employer of choice.
She said: “80% of UK respondents say that remaining competitive in the market place is the key objective of their choice plan. But choice in benefits is also an effective way to enhance employee satisfaction and commitment to the company by recognising differing needs.
“Employees perceive value in this, and with 55% of UK respondents stating that employee engagement is their main objective, it is easy to see why flexible benefits are progressively seen as the means to boost this.”
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Almost one in six retired people have become more worried about their health since giving up work
Intermediaries are seeing growing concerns about ill health in retirement among their clients, according to MetLife.
Old age and ill health Research carried out by the provider shows that 57% of retired people have become more worried about their health or that of their partner since retiring. Among those aged 75 and over, that figure rises to 73%.
The survey also reveals that 16% of IFAs have been asked by clients about the financial impact of ill health on retirement planning.
With life expectancy rising, MetLife is urging consumers to consider retirement income solutions that provide flexibility during retirement.
Dominic Grinstead, managing director of MetLife UK, said: “People are clearly concerned about health in retirement and the potential impact on their finances, but it’s not a subject that many of us want to think about.
“Retirement planning needs to adapt to enable savers to be able to cope financially with ill health. There are solutions such as fixed-term annuities which offer increased flexibility ahead of traditional solutions.”
Government statistics show the average 65-year-old man is expected to live to 83 and the average 65-year-old woman is expected to live to 85.6 years. Men can expect to spend an average of eight years in poor general health, while women can expect to spend 11 years in poor health.
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Well over a quarter of a million people are claiming state sickness benefit because of mental and behavioural disorders it was claimed today.
Research carried out by Legal & General, using Department of Work and Pensions statistics, suggests that 260,000 people are claiming Employment and Support Allowance (ESA) for those reasons, an increase of over 29% since 2010.
ESA is the government’s sickness benefit and is paid to people who cannot work because of ill-health or disability.
 In May 2011, 265,530 people were claiming ESA because of mental and behavioural disorders, an increase of over 29% since May 2010 when there were 205,700 claimants. Of this number, over 27% of the total number of claimants are aged between 35-44, an increase of over 29% compared to 2010.
Almost a quarter (over 23%) of the total number of claimants are aged between 24-34, an increase of nearly 28% compared to 2010.
The analysis has been conducted at a time when the government is reviewing the way it handles absence in the workplace.
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Bosses at Britain’s small businesses are risking their own health as they battle staff absence to stay afloat.
In fact, four in ten (40%) heads of small companies continue to work from their sick beds when ill, rather than take time off to recover because there is nobody else to pick up their work.
 A study among 250 small businesses, carried out for Bupa, shows that bosses are also battling mental as well as physical strain. With financial pressure and a lack of resources hampering succession planning, around a third of SME bosses (31%) said that their business would collapse if they were to take time off.
According to the research, staff absence is also hitting the revenue of small companies. Nearly two thirds (62%) of small business bosses say that employee absence is negatively affecting their business, contributing up to a 10% drop in turnover.
Tony Wood, sales and marketing director at Bupa, described small business bosses as “real troupers” but warned that they need to think about how to take care of their health needs and those of their staff, as working through sickness is not a “long-term solution”.
The Bupa research shows that the sectors worst affected by workplace absence are property and technology companies, with 77% of small business bosses surveyed in each of these sectors agreeing that sick leave has a financial impact on business. Other sectors which said that unplanned leave caused their business to suffer significantly were hospitality (58%) and retail (50%).
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Mental health issues are behind a significant rise in claims in group income protection (GIP) schemes, according to an analysis of its own data by Legal & General.
Almost a third (31%) of GIP claims received by L&G since 2000 were for mental health issues. The rate has risen by 6% since 2005.
The insurer said that GIP claims for mental health issues are highest in the finance and insurance sector, with 44% of claims, 13% higher than the average. Rates were lowest in the mining and oil & gas extraction sector.
The insurer said the statistics seem to support research from the Health & Safety Executive which estimates that 10.8 million working days were lost in 2010/11 to mental health issues such as stress, depression and anxiety.
Diane Buckley, managing director of Legal & General Group Income Protection, said that the coming months will see the insurer publish analyses which examine notifications for arthritis; back problems; cardiovascular; chronic fatigue syndrome; digestive; musculoskeletal; nervous system; respiratory and cancer.
“Keeping our claims transparent will further aid our efforts to get individuals back into work,” she said.
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He added there is a risk that many people going into care are deferring obtaining advice because they believe that legislation on funding is imminent when this is not in fact the case.
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