The Patients’ Association recently published Patients Not Numbers, People Not Statistics which highlights 16 emotive accounts that reflect, in the association’s view, “a consistent pattern of shocking standards of care” in the NHS.
Incidents of poor care and lack of compassion by nursing staff, were described by patients and relatives, in a bid to provide: “a wake up call for the Department of Health and the Care Quality Commission”. In one instance, a doctor in A&E thought an elderly patient had been left at home alone and neglected, when in fact she had been in hospital. “He couldn’t understand how she could have become so dehydrated,” a relative explained. Other accounts included incidences where patients were left in their own faeces and urine for long periods, and shouted at for wetting the bed – despite having been instructed to do so by staff who were too busy to provide assistance to the bathroom. Director of the Patients’ Association, Katherine Murphy said: “The accounts reveal patients being denied basic dignity in their care – often left in soiled bed clothes, being given inadequate food and drink, having repeated fall suffering from late diagnosis, cancelled operations, bungled referrals and misplaced notes. There are also worrying instances of cruel and callous attitudes from staff towards vulnerable and sometimes terminally ill patients.” Commenting on the report, Royal College of Nursing chief executive, Dr Peter Carter, said: “Everyone in the NHS must remain focused on care, compassion and empathy in order to improve the quality of care for patients.” However, he also expressed concern that public confidence in the NHS could be undermined and staff morale could be affected by the examples cited in the report, adding: “We believe that the vast majority of nurses are decent, highly skilled individuals. This is reflected in the fact that the last survey of patients by the Care Quality Commission found that over 90% rated the care they received as good, very good or excellent.”
