Crackdown On Nhs Neglect of the Elderly ; Spot Checks Are Ordered After Damning Report Reveals Failures in Care of Old People in Hospital

Summary

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Health inspectors have warned Westcountry hospitals to expect spot checks without notice amid a national scandal over the inhumane treatment of elderly patients in NHS care. Campaigners in the region have welcomed the news that unannounced inspections will be carried out within weeks as the health service faces damning criticism following a report which accused the NHS of a catalogue of failings in elderly care. The health service ombudsman, Ann Abraham, accused the NHS of "failing to meet even the most basic standards of care" for older people and added that a "change of culture" is needed. Her report, presented to Parliament yesterday, catalogues a "harrowing" array of failings in hospitals and GPs' surgeries that have left patients suffering unnecessary pain, indignity and distress.

"The reasonable expectation that an older person or their family may have of dignified, pain-free, end-of-life care, in clean surroundings in hospital is not being fulfilled," she wrote. The Care Quality Commission (CQC) has said that unannounced inspections will begin at wards in 100 hospitals from the start of next month, assessing "dignity and nutrition" for older people. The report did not highlight any shocking cases in the Westcountry, but a spokesman for the Commission said any hospital in the South West could expect to receive a spot check. The commission's chief executive, Cynthia Bower, said: "The cases highlighted by the ombudsman in this report are truly shocking and the way that these patients are treated is simply unacceptable. I am in no doubt that there are hospitals that need to raise their game." David May, whose mother Gwynneth died from hospitalacquired bronchopneumonia at Derriford Hospital in Plymouth last year, welcomed the idea of spot checks. "It certainly should happen," he said, "I hope that Derriford's healthcare of the elderly wards are subject to them." Mr May has heavily criticised his mother's treatment after she was admitted with a leg ulcer then moved up to 14 times between wards - once across open ground in freezing, driving rain - before succumbing to the illness she contracted in hospital. He said: "Ann Abraham's report is really shocking. It is not just the examples - we are sadly becoming used to them - but what she finds about the attitude towards care for the elderly inside hospitals. "The ward where my mother died was a deeply depressing and shocking place. The elderly are getting clinical attention, but not care. This desperately needs to change." A spokesman for Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust said an investigation into Mrs May's care is underway.

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Crackdown On Nhs Neglect of the Elderly ; Spot Checks Are Ordered After Damning Report Reveals Failures in Care of Old People in Hospital

Writing in the WMN in December, the hospital's chief nurse, Sarah Watson-Fisher, said she was "truly...

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