UK’s NHS failing elderly says report
Elderly people are being failed by the NHS, believes the health service ombudsman.
In a damning report, Ann Abraham says even the “most basic” human needs were being neglected.
She details how one patient transferred by ambulance to a care home arrived bruised, soaked in urine, dishevelled and wearing someone else’s clothes.
In another case, a man’s life support system was switched off despite a request from his family to delay doing so for a short time.
Ms Abraham warned that these were not isolated incidents.
The NHS, she says, needs to undergo an “urgent” widespread change in attitude towards older people.
Of nearly 9,000 properly made complaints to the ombudsman about the NHS last year, almost one in five (18%) were about the care of older people.
Ms Abraham said: “Underlying such acts of carelessness and neglect is a casual indifference to the dignity and welfare of older patients.
“That this should happen anywhere must cause concern – that it should take place in a setting intended to deliver care is indefensible.”
The report detailed failures to provide clean and comfortable surroundings, help with eating, drinking water provision and the ability to call someone who will respond.
Half the people in the report did not consume adequate food or water during their time in hospital and the cases showed instances of older people unwashed and left in soiled or dirty clothes.
One woman described how her aunt, named only as Mrs H, had been taken on a long journey to a care home in Tyneside by ambulance after a stay at the elderly care assessment unit at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital.
Mrs H was described in the report as a “feisty” independent and dignified woman, who had lived at home until aged 88.
She arrived at the care home “strapped to a stretcher”, soaked with urine, dressed in clothing that did not belong to her held up by paper clips, and accompanied by bags of dirty laundry, much of which was not her own.
A Trust spokesman said it had apologised to the complainant and carried out a full investigation.
In another case, staff at Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust switched off the life support for a patient named as Mr C despite his family’s request that they delay doing so for a short time.
Ms Abraham said money alone would not help the NHS to fulfil its own standards of care.
She said: “Like all of us, they wanted to be cared for properly and, at the end of their lives, to die peacefully and with dignity.
“Instead, these accounts present a picture of NHS provision that is failing to meet even the most basic standards of care.”
Care services minister Paul Burstow said: “This report exposes the urgent need to update our NHS.
“We need a culture where poor practice is challenged and quality is the watchword. The dignity of frail older people should never be sidelined.”
He said new spot inspections by nurses, with a specific remit to check on malnutrition and dignity of the elderly, “will cast a light on poor practice.”
Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said he feared the situation could get worse with the NHS budget being cut by £20bn in England alone.
“It is inevitable that there will be an impact on frontline care,” he said.
Source: Sky News