Disgracefully poor care for elderly patients in some UK hospitals

Today's is but the latest of the litany of shameful reports of Britain's substandard treatment of elderly, vulnerable people in NHS hospitals. In the Telegraph we read: "Unacceptable care has become standard in some trusts, with doctors and nurses talking down to patients, ignoring their calls for assistance and failing to help them eat, drink or wash. After carrying out spot checks at geriatric wards in 100 hospitals, the commission found that 35 needed to make improvements, 18 were failing to meet legal standards and there were “major concerns” at two trusts."

This has rightly been the top news item today, both in print and on the broadcast media. There are always apologists with their ever-ready excuses of insufficient cash/time/nurses/resources, of course, but this will cut no ice with people who have experienced the routine 'uncare' for themselves, or have visited neglected elderly patients on these wards of shame. "Katherine Murphy, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said: “Yet another report to add to the plethora of other reports, all highlighting the same issues around poor care of elderly patients in hospital. "How many reports do we have to look at and how many times do the public need to hear about this before the right action is taken?”"

Why does nothing improve? - I'll tell you why: because no-one is held accountable. - Remember, despite presiding over the avoidable suffering and deaths of around 400 patients at that infamous, inhuman Stafford hospital between January 2005 and March 2009, Martin Yeates, claiming to be 'ill', was allowed to cry off even attending at the public inquiry into the scandal! Furthermore he received a golden handshake - £400,000 (that's a thousand pounds for each death!) - and has a jewel-encrusted pension to look forward to, as well as being able to apply for other obscenely-highly paid similar jobs in another area! Instead of being tried in a criminal court for the manslaughter of hundreds of his fellow-citizens, this scoundrel has been richly rewarded for his dereliction of duty.

When grave wrongdoing incurs no sanction, there will be no reform. We have read today of hospitals that are 'failing to meet legal standards'. - Very well, let's see the people responsible for this tried in court and sentenced appropriately. That would very soon result in better care for vulnerable patients.

13% increase in written complaints about NHS and community services

The Patients Association reports a rise of over 13% in the number of written complaints about the NHS and community services, and Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive, deplores "stories of neglect, misdiagnosis and a distinct lack of care and compassion," and states that the number of complaints between 2008/9 to 2009/10 rose from 89,139 to 101,077, and that this is certainly a massive underestimate of the number of people who actually want to complain. She says, "We need a fundamental review of the complaints process. As a first step every person that makes a complaint should be asked to rate the response and that information should also be published. That will also enable us to pick up those Trusts making no effort to learn. At a time when the NHS is facing budget constraints, we want to make sure that the quality of care patients receive is not compromised and that staff and management become more open and more accepting of complaints and respond constructively when something goes wrong."

A previous Chair of the Patients Association told me years ago that she did not know of even one case of a complainant being satisfied with the response to their complaint. My own experience of the NHS Complaints Procedures is that the complainant is actually punished for making the complaint, and nothing at all is done to help the complainant or to prevent appalling treatment from happening again. Indeed, that the healthcare staff complained about are routinely protected from censure or sanction, ensures that poor treatment will be repeated.

We should pay heed to the words of Katherine Murphy, Director of the Patients Association

In this Telegraph article we read that "Two of the bosses of the company at the centre of the out-of-hours GP scandal have gone on to other jobs running similar patient services for the NHS." These two bosses are GPs. You will remember that Andrew Lansley, Secretary of State for Ill-Health, who infamously refuses to ban the addition of transfats to food products, despite NICE's recommendation to do so and save up to 7,000 premature deaths a year, is planning to put £billions into the money-grubbing hands of entrepreneurial doctors like this pair.

Extract from the article:

"Katherine Murphy, director of the Patients Association, said: "It never ceases to amaze me that people can move from one senior post to another without having to justify their failures or be held to account.

"It is appalling that these individuals are involved in out-of-hours again. Where is the accountability and what message does that send to patients and the taxpayer?"

She added that it 'raises many issues' about the government's NHS reforms and plans to put GPs in charge of commissioning care.

Ms Murphy said: "I wonder if the Secretary of State [is] reconsidering some of his plans for GP commissioning now.""

Health Charities criticise Labour's Record on Health

See report about a letter to the Sunday Telegraph. Among the signatories, "Katherine Murphy, from The Patients Association said: “When the public hears that money is being made available for a specific purpose, like carers, or Alzheimer’s, or children’s health, they think that is where it will go. I think people would be so shocked and saddened to realise just how often this has not been the case.”"

I would certainly agree with the points made in the letter, which currently appears online on page http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/letters/7599337/Parties-must-be-more-specific-about-health-care-funding.html

But I would criticise all the parties with regard to their policy on Health. I believe they all make claims like 'The NHS is safe with us' or similar. - Frankly, it's not the safety of the NHS that I care about; it's the well-being and safety of the vast numbers of patients who have suffered, or continue to suffer, appalling treatment at the hands of a bureaucratic, callous, arrogant, ill-informed, self-serving, drug-pushing, shockingly expensive, almost completely unaccountable State machine that has the gall to call itself a National Health Service.

See my Mensa article on Cruelty, Clinical Negligence and the Abuse of Power in the NHS

and my Mensa article on Obesity and the Salt Connection

One in four local NHS organisations in England is failing to comply with basic hygiene standards, reports Healthcare Commission.

Quarter of hospitals miss superbug targets - Telegraph

Extracts:

"A Healthcare Commission report shows 99 of 394 healthcare trusts admitted to failing to have adequate infection control, safely decontaminate reusable medical equipment or keep their facilities clean."

"Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association, said: "We are killing more people with C. difficile than on our roads. The death toll with MRSA is equivalent to two train crashes every week.

"These are avoidable infections. Every week there is a different priority for the Government. Infection control has never been given a high priority.""

"Compliance with two standards on treating patients with dignity and respect, and privacy and confidentiality, also fell slightly."

"Norman Lamb, the Liberal Democrat health spokesman, said: "It is shocking that after countless Government initiatives the number of hospitals failing to protect patients from these infections has doubled."

• To view the full report, visit www.healthcarecommission.org.uk"

"Four trusts reported failing to meet any of the three hygiene standards. They were:

• Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust
• Sheffield PCT
• Sutton And Merton PCT
• Wiltshire PCT"

What do you think should be done about this deplorable state of affairs?

Do you fear to go into hospital because of the lack of cleanliness and hygiene there? Or because of the way you are treated there? Dare you remonstrate with a doctor or nurse who hasn't washed their hands when they should have done? - Have you written to your MP about your concerns? Has s/he done anything about the matter?


Lose weight by eating less salt! Go on! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!
See my website www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk
(The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

UK Hospitals fail to report spread of new superbug 'more dangerous than MRSA'

UK Hospitals fail to report spread of new superbug 'more dangerous than MRSA' - Report is here and here are extracts:

"The shambolic state of infection control on wards is exposed in a survey by the Patients' Association. It found only about a quarter of trusts are gathering data on Clostridium difficile (C. diff), the bacterium that experts say poses more of a risk to public health than MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus Aureus)."

"The findings from 500 infection-control nurses and managers follow mounting concern over the threat to patients' health from C. diff, which can cause severe illness and death in those with weakened immune systems, particularly the elderly.

The bacterium, which spreads easily through unhygienic and filthy wards, is the major cause of infectious diarrhoea, but it can also cause high temperatures and severe inflammation, and comes with a death rate of about five per cent."

"Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association, said: "Collection of data about this very dangerous infection is haphazard to say the least, and we are not getting the true picture. How can patients have confidence in their hospitals if the real threat posed by C. diff is being played down?"

Dr Mark Enright, a microbiologist at Imperial College London, said that the government agency's monitoring scheme was flawed because a new and more dangerous strain of C. diff had emerged in the past year or so, striking patients aged 40 and over."

The Department of Health retains its usual complacency. - "A Department of Health spokesman said clean, safe care was not an "optional extra" for the NHS, adding: "Infection control should be a core activity for trusts.""