By Vivienne Russell | 13 October 2011
Half of hospitals visited by inspectors need to improve their care of elderly patients, the NHS watchdog said today.
The Care Quality Commission has summarised
the findings from 100 visits to hospitals under its dignity and nutrition
programme.Reports into conditions at individual sites have already been published over the past few months. These raised concerns over patient care in some places. Examples included patients not being helped to feed themselves, having their calls for assistance ignored and not being given enough privacy when receiving personal care such as washing.
Of the 100 hospitals inspected, 45 were fully compliant with essential care standards on both dignity and nutrition, 35 met both standards but still needed to make improvements in one or both areas, and 20 failed to meet one or both of the standards.
CQC chair Dame Jo Williams said: ‘The fact that over half of hospitals were falling short to some degree in the basic care they provided to elderly people is truly alarming, and deeply disappointing.’
She said the CQC would continue to be vigilant in holding trusts accountable for poor care, adding: ‘But the system as a whole – those who are responsible for making sure care meets essential standards, and those who commission that care – must respond if we are not to find ourselves here, yet again, a few years down the line.’
The report identified three underlying conditions that it said could lead to poor care. These were leadership, staff attitudes and resources. The commission urged hospital managers to ‘ensure that budgets are used wisely to support frontline care staff’.
Jo Webber, deputy director of policy at the NHS Confederation, said NHS trust boards should have good systems in place to analyse information about care quality.
‘Every member of NHS staff, whether health professional, managerial or administrative, should make sure that they are happy with the care being provided to older people in their area,’ she said.
