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Nurses blasted over elderly care
NHS nurses came under fire today for their "cruel" and "demeaning" treatment of elderly patients.
TV agony aunt and former nurse Claire Rayner said she was "sickened" by what has happened to some parts of her profession.
Ms Rayner, president of the Patients Association, also called for "bad" nurses to be struck off the medical register.
A report out yesterday by the campaign group revealed stories of people left lying in their own faeces and urine, having call bells taken away from them and being left without food or drink.
One former nurse told of the substandard care she received as a patient herself, adding: "It's a scary world out in the wards."
In a foreword to the report, Ms Rayner said: "For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses."
She said it was a "sad coincidence" that she trained as a nurse with one of the patients who had "suffered so much".
She went on: "I know that she, like me, was horrified by the appalling care she had before she died. We both came from a generation of nurses who were trained at the bedside and in whom the core values of nursing were deeply inculcated.
"I am sickened by what has happened to some parts of my profession of which I was so proud.
"These bad, cruel nurses may be – probably are – a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two per cent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the register.
"If only the majority of good caring nurses would stand up for their patients and their own profession and blow whistles it would make a difference and bring back to them the sense of pride in the provision of good, safe care that used to be enjoyed by the whole population of this country."
The Patients Association called on the Government and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) to conduct an "urgent review of the standards of basic care" in hospital, and called for tougher inspections and regulations.
Its director, Katherine Murphy, said: "These accounts tell the story of the two per cent of patients that consistently rate their care as poor.
"If this was extrapolated to the whole of the NHS from 2002 to 2008 it would equate to over one million patients.
"These accounts reveal patients being denied basic dignity in their care – often left in soiled bed clothes, being given inadequate food and drink, having repeated falls, suffering from late diagnosis, cancelled operations, bungled referrals and misplaced notes.
"There are also worrying instances of cruel and callous attitudes from staff towards vulnerable and sometimes terminally ill patients."
The chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing, Peter Carter, said: "The level of care described by these families is completely unacceptable, and we will not condone nurses who behave in ways that are contrary to the principles and ethics of the profession.
"However we believe the vast majority of nurses are decent, highly skilled individuals."
CQC chairman Barbara Young said: "It is absolutely right to highlight that standards of hospital care can vary from very good to poor.
"Poor basic nursing is a recurring theme in organisations that perform badly. I am in no doubt that many hospitals need to raise their game in this area."
Chief nursing officer Chris Beasley said: "All patients deserve the highest quality of care from the NHS and the poor care received in these cases is simply unacceptable."
Hilary Scholefield, chief nurse at the Sheffield trust, said a review had been carried out by the trust and the Healthcare Commission about the medication given to Mr Milner and it was found staff acted "appropriately and professionally".
"We have shared all of the conclusions of the review with Mr Milner's family," she said.
Family concerns for cancer man
Cancer patient Tom Milner died in January 2006 at the Northern General Hospital in Sheffield.
His family have serious misgivings about his care in his final days, highlighted in yesterday's report.
His daughter Janet Brooks said his initial treatment was good, but care deteriorated after a change of shift. He was left lying in his own urine and blood.
She said she had since had nine explanations from the hospital as to why her father had not been given pain relief.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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