Is treatment of the elderly "cruel"?

Richard Jackson | 09:03 UK time, Thursday, 27 August 2009

Do elderly people get the treatment they deserve from the NHS?

The former TV agony aunt Claire Rayner is now the president of the Patients' Association, and she says some nursing is 'cruel and demeaning'. This morning, she told Shelagh that nurses don't always get the time and resources to do their jobs properly.

The Patients' Association has published 16 cases where elderly people were treated particularly badly in NHS wards. They also want an urgent review of the dignity of basic care, and changes to the complaints system.

Is Claire Rayner right? Are elderly people treated as lower priorities? Are some nurses to blame, or are they overworked and left without the time they need to provide the care they want to give? Tell us about your experiences in hospitals - it's the phone in at 9. You can text the programme on 85058 or email breakfast@bbc.co.uk.

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Comments

1. At 09:40am on 27 Aug 2009, zeldalicious wrote:
Put very basically, we are living too long. The NHS doesn't have the staff it needs to cope with the demands of the ageing population and sadly, there are going to be horror stories. IMO the care of the elderly is going to need a radical overhaul. It takes a special kind of person to meet the needs of 'needy' people and all the qualifications in the world don't necessarily mean that the person is suitable for this kind of work.

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2. At 09:41am on 27 Aug 2009, saint5332 wrote:
This debate is completely unbalanced and unfair to all the wonderful, hardworking staff within the NHS. When elderly relatives go into to hospital this does not negate families responsibility to the relative and they still have the same responsibilities of care. Qualified staff have to look after many patients on each shift and unqualified staff, such as Health Care Assistants and Assistant Practitioners take on some of the duties traditionally associated with Nurses - they do not, however do this after 3 days training as one caller suggested. A lot of these patients should not be cared for within the Acute Hospital setting and should be taken care of through their PCT within a nursing home setting and I think it is totally unfair that these, on the whole, hardworking, caring professionals are effectively being slammed.

There are thousands of patients each year who receive exceptional care from the NHS but unfortauntely we never get to hear those stories do we, suppose that's just not news!

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3. At 10:16am on 27 Aug 2009, DotAdept wrote:
My organisation specialises in delivering dementia care training and has worked with hundreds of care professionals around the UK. While many nurses and others attending our courses have the best of good intentions to deliver care with kindness, many do not have the skills and knowledge required to understand the special needs of people with dementia. They leave our courses better equipped but many are not then supported to put their new knowledge into practice.

The problem lies with the leadership and management of the care professionals. Listening to the programme it is very apparent how varied peoples experiences are. Good supervision and support would address this. Senior professionals need to be able and willing to challenge bad practice and to praise good practice.

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