A failure of care

The health watchdog assessed 100 acute hospitals across the country on standards of care relating to dignity and nutrition - surely two of the most simple measures of any healthcare environment.

It is simply not good enough that in 2011, after a decade of unprecedented health spending, so many of our hospitals are failing to get these basics right.

The list of problems is lengthy. Call bells placed out of reach. Elderly people condescended to, their worries dismissed out of hand. Curtains left open while personal care is given. Patients unable to wash their hands before eating.

These are fundamental failures of basic care, unforgivable no matter how busy a ward or how overstretched its staff.

When children place the care of their elderly parents in the hands of their local hospital, it is a simple matter of trust that they will be offered basic dignity, basic respect, basic nutrition.

These are areas on which no compromise can ever be accepted.