PC police: Why calling someone an ‘old dear’ now ranks up there with racism

Terms such as “old dear” and “bed blocker” must become as unacceptable as sexist or racist expressions, the politically correct report’s authors said.

They also called for medical or nursing students or other potential recruits who fail to show enough compassion towards older people to be barred from entering the health and care professions.

Hospital ward sisters meanwhile should play a leading role in ensuring dignified care for patients, the report said.

Issuing a call to end the “persistent failings” in the care system, the Commission on Dignity in Care said the care of older people needed fundamental change.

Its draft report said: “Expressions such as ‘bed blockers’ imply older people are a burden or a nuisance.

“Referring to them by illness reduces them to a clinical condition rather than recognising them as a person.

“And using patronising language such as ‘how are we today dear?’ belittles them.

“Language that denigrates older people has no place in a caring society – particularly in caring organisations – and should be as unacceptable as racist or sexist terms.”

Speaking at the report’s launch, Professor Trish Morris-Thompson of NHS London said she would expect to see “a form of redress” for anyone using such patronising language.

She added: “If someone says ‘oh there’s an old dear in bed four’, that’s patronising.”

Age UK chairwoman and commission co-chair Dianne Jeffrey said care users should be addressed in the way they want to be addressed, suggesting different terms might be acceptable to different people.

“It’s one of the things we need to talk about when someone enters the care system,” she said.

Among the report’s 48 recommendations was a further proposal that universities and professional bodies “must satisfy themselves that applicants have both the academic qualifications and the compassionate values needed to provide dignified care”.

In practice, this could mean students being turned down for medicine or nursing courses if they fail to meet a set of criteria showing they are sufficiently compassionate.

Commission co-chairman Sir Keith Pearson, from the NHS Confederation, denied this would herald any kind of dilution of academic standards.

Instead, it might mean young people aspiring to be doctors or nurses will improve their chances by showing they have undertaken some voluntary work, for example, he said.

Some universities and training organisations already include compassion among the entry requirements, it is understood, but the report’s authors said they wanted to see this rolled out across the board.

Once staff have been appointed, their “compassionate values” should then be further tested, the report said, with hospitals evaluating “compassion as well as technical skills in their appraisals of staff performance”.

Under the proposals, nurses would be expected to take action if they felt patients were not receiving dignified care.

“The leadership of the ward sister or charge nurse is crucial,” the report said.

“They should know they have authority over care standards, dignity and wellbeing on their ward, expect to be held accountable for it, and take action they deem necessary in the interests of patients.”

The commission should publish its final report by the end of June.