Post by Denise on May 31, 2011 8:32:03 GMT
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) today publishes the first 12 reports from an inspection programme which examines whether elderly people receive essential standards of care in 100 NHS hospitals throughout England.
The programme focuses on whether people are treated with dignity and respect, and whether they get food and drink that meets their needs. A national report into the findings of the programme will be published in September.
These first 12 inspection reports identify three hospitals as failing to meet the essential standards required by law; Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust and Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust. Less serious concerns were identified in a further three hospitals, with the remaining six found to be meeting essential standards. All the hospitals where concerns have been identified must now tell the regulator how and when they will improve. The three hospitals failing to meet essential standards could face enforcement action by the regulator if improvements aren’t made.
Whilst the reports document many examples of people being treated with respect and given personalised, attentive care, some tell a bleak story of people not being helped to eat and drink, with their care needs not assessed and their dignity not respected.
Recurring concerns relating to nutrition included:
•people not being given the assistance they needed to eat – meaning they struggled to eat and in some cases were physically unable to eat meals
•their nutritional needs not being assessed and monitored – for example, not being weighed throughout their stay, making it impossible to determine if they were losing weight; or identified as malnourished without an action plan being put in place to address this
•people not being given enough to drink – water left out of reach or no fluids given for long periods of time. In one case, a member of clinical staff described having to prescribe water on medicine charts to ensure patients got enough to drink.
Recurring concerns around dignity and respect included:
•People not involved in their own care – their treatment not explained to them; being told what would happen to them without consent being sought or concerns addressed; staff addressing patients’ relatives rather than the patient themselves
•Staff not treating people in a respectful way – sthingying food into people’s mouths from above without engaging with them; discussing personal patient information in open areas.
•Staff speaking to people in a condescending or dismissive way. One man told us that staff “talk to me as if I’m daft".
Read more: www.cqc.org.uk//newsandevents/pressreleases.cfm?cit_id=37384&FAArea1=customWidgets.content_view_1&usecache=false
The programme focuses on whether people are treated with dignity and respect, and whether they get food and drink that meets their needs. A national report into the findings of the programme will be published in September.
These first 12 inspection reports identify three hospitals as failing to meet the essential standards required by law; Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, The Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust and Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust. Less serious concerns were identified in a further three hospitals, with the remaining six found to be meeting essential standards. All the hospitals where concerns have been identified must now tell the regulator how and when they will improve. The three hospitals failing to meet essential standards could face enforcement action by the regulator if improvements aren’t made.
Whilst the reports document many examples of people being treated with respect and given personalised, attentive care, some tell a bleak story of people not being helped to eat and drink, with their care needs not assessed and their dignity not respected.
Recurring concerns relating to nutrition included:
•people not being given the assistance they needed to eat – meaning they struggled to eat and in some cases were physically unable to eat meals
•their nutritional needs not being assessed and monitored – for example, not being weighed throughout their stay, making it impossible to determine if they were losing weight; or identified as malnourished without an action plan being put in place to address this
•people not being given enough to drink – water left out of reach or no fluids given for long periods of time. In one case, a member of clinical staff described having to prescribe water on medicine charts to ensure patients got enough to drink.
Recurring concerns around dignity and respect included:
•People not involved in their own care – their treatment not explained to them; being told what would happen to them without consent being sought or concerns addressed; staff addressing patients’ relatives rather than the patient themselves
•Staff not treating people in a respectful way – sthingying food into people’s mouths from above without engaging with them; discussing personal patient information in open areas.
•Staff speaking to people in a condescending or dismissive way. One man told us that staff “talk to me as if I’m daft".
Read more: www.cqc.org.uk//newsandevents/pressreleases.cfm?cit_id=37384&FAArea1=customWidgets.content_view_1&usecache=false