Retirement Living & Aged care
Uneasy are the last days for many
MOST people do not go easy into the night. Last year, more than 17,600 people died in Singapore, with most suffering from worsening illness and disability in their final days. According to the National Strategy for Palliative Care report, more than half the people who die will be afflicted by some form of chronic illness that 'may extend from days to months to years'.
Dover Park Hospice adds 10 beds
PALLIATIVE care here has received a boost with the expansion of Dover Park Hospice. The non-profit organisation, which admits about half of all palliative-care inpatients, now has 10 more beds, making it 50 in total. It now also has the manpower and expertise to care for the terminally ill with more acute medical conditions.
Healthcare & Wellness
'Let doctors help dying patients die'
LONDON: Doctors should be allowed to help terminally ill patients kill themselves in cases where they have less than a year to live, a major report in Britain published yesterday says. The independent Commission on Assisted Dying, whose members include several prominent British peers and medics, wants doctors to be able to prescribe lethal doses of medication for dying people to take, the Daily Telegraph reported yesterday.
Finance & Investment
AstraZeneca to invest $200 mn in Chinese company
Beijing: British drugmaker AstraZeneca is showing interest in eastern China's manufacturing plant and will invest $200 million in it, as per the government. It is Britain's second largest drugmaking company. This will be the company's largest investment in a single facility. The construction started on Wednesday at China Medical City in Taizhou in Zhejiang province.
Primary healthcare catches on
When 28-year-old Priyanka Rao had a headache, she visited a city-based super-specialty hospital fearing it could be migraine or something chronic. The doctor advised her MRI, CT scan and other tests to diagnose the cause of the pain. Later, the reports revealed that the pain was just because of a normal headache. Rao, however, had to shell out Rs 4,000 to undergo these tests and for the doctor's consultation fee, while the same could have been done for just Rs 100.
Ageing Research
Alzheimer's risk can be detected 10 years before symptoms, study finds
Alzheimer's disease is a debilitating neuro-degenerative disease associated with memory loss, dementia and the eventual loss of motor functions. Often it is hard for doctors to officially diagnose someone with the disease until it has extensively progressed.
