The Telegraph
12:01AM BST 27 Aug 2009

in brief:

















'Cruel and neglectful' care of one million NHS patients exposed
One million NHS patients have been the victims of appalling care in hospitals across Britain,
In the last six years, the Patients Association claims hundreds of thousands have suffered from poor standards of nursing, often with 'neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel' treatment.
The charity has disclosed a horrifying catalogue of elderly people left in pain, in soiled bed clothes, denied adequate food and drink, and suffering from repeatedly cancelled operations, missed diagnoses and dismissive staff.

Claire Rayner, President of the Patients Association and a former nurse, said:“For far too long now, the Patients Association has been receiving calls on our helpline from people wanting to talk about the dreadful, neglectful, demeaning, painful and sometimes downright cruel treatment their elderly relatives had experienced at the hands of NHS nurses.
“I am sickened by what has happened to some part of my profession of which I was so proud.

"These bad, cruel nurses may be - probably are - a tiny proportion of the nursing work force, but even if they are only one or two percent of the whole they should be identified and struck off the Register.”

Ms Rayner said it was by "sad coincidence" that she trained as a nurse with one of the patients who had "suffered so much".
"I know that she, like me, was horrified by the appalling care she had before she died.
"We both came from a generation of nurses who were trained at the bedside and in whom the core values of nursing were deeply inculcated."

Katherine Murphy, Director of the Patients Association, said “Whilst Mid Staffordshire may have been an anomaly in terms of scale the PA knew the kinds of appalling treatment given there could be found across the NHS. This report removes any doubt and makes this clear to all. Two of the accounts come from Stafford, and they sadly fail to stand out from the others.

"If this was extrapolated to the whole of the NHS from 2002 to 2008 it would equate to over one million patients. Very often these are the most vulnerable elderly and terminally ill patients. It’s a sad indictment of the care they receive.”

The Patients Association said one hospital had threatened it with legal action if it chose to publish the material.

Pamela Goddard, a piano teacher from Bletchingley, in Surrey, was 82 and suffering with cancer but was left in her own excrement and her condition deteriorated due to her bed sores.

Florence Weston, from Sedgley in the West Midlands, died aged 85 and had to remain without food or water for several days as her hip operation was repeated cancelled.

The charity released the dossier to highlight the poor care which a minority of patients in the NHS are subjected to. "These are patients, not numbers. These are people, not statistics."

Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive of the Royal College of Nursing, said he was concerned that public confidence in the NHS could be undermined by the examples cited and it would affect morale in hardworking staff. “The level of care described by these families is completely unacceptable, and we will not condone nurses who behave in ways that are contrary to the principles and ethics of the profession.
"However we believe that the vast majority of nurses are decent, highly skilled individuals.

Chris Beasley, Chief Nursing Officer at the Department of Health said the care in the cases highlighted by the PA was “simply unacceptable”. She added: "It is important to note this is not representative of the picture across the NHS.

"The NHS treats millions of people every day and the vast majority of patients experience good quality, safe and effective care - the Care Quality Commission's recent patient experience survey shows that 93 percent of patients rate their overall care as good or excellent.

Full Article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/6092658/Cruel-and-neglectful-care-of-one-million-NHS-patients-exposed.html



Fluff......

The thing is any ill treatment in the health service is usually swept under the carpet and we have gotten used to it.... now thats sick,
I've always been aware the problems have not changed in elderly care for decades. and more worrying is the trend of the modern reformed NHS is the fact its worse than previous health service standards......

intrestingly I've just been made aware and looking into the NHS network and a charity called Common Purpose that is not only linked to the NHS netwoks but most public service sector through Lord Mandleson and has disturbing links to unlawful acts... I'll keep you posted. "below is interest read - get to know them for now"..

http://www.cpexposed.com/documents/CP_NHS_The_Improvement_Network.pdf