Concern at hospitals’ treatment of elderly

Three health trusts have broken the law when it comes to providing older people with essential standards of care on dignity and nutrition – a quarter of those reviewed.

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) published the first 12 reports from an England-wide inspection programme into standards of care at 100 hospitals.

It found three out of the 12 (25 per cent) were breaking the law, and there were concerns about another three.

Only half of hospitals were providing essential standards of care as set down in the Health and Social Care Act 2008.

While there were many examples of good care, some hospitals performed poorly, inspectors found.

At the Alexandra Hospital in Worcestershire, part of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, inspectors expressed “major” concerns about nutrition.

They found “meals served and taken to the bedside of people who were asleep or not sitting in the right position to enable them to eat their meal”.

Hot dinners and puddings were left for 15 minutes to go cold before staff found time to assist patients.

“Some trays were not placed within easy reach of people and food was not always presented in a way that enabled people to eat it independently,” the report said.

“We saw several people on both wards use their fingers to pick up food as they had no one to help them (cut it up).”

While guidelines stated people should be offered a choice of food, one person’s meal was taken away because they did not want it and no replacement was offered.

However, Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust was among six nationally found to have met all essential standards.