Care of our elderly........

Hi jogginggirl, I just read the article.

"the failings fell into four broad categories - communication, assistance going to the toilet, pain relief and nutrition."

So none of their needs are being met?

I know it's desperate isn't it? I hardly left the hospital bedside of my mum when she was ill a few years ago........happily she survived but everyone says she wouldn't have done if I hadn't been there! Deyhydration was the worst offence - even with a nurse at the bottom of her bed her fluid intake was ignored. I can remember a time when that jug of water at the side of the bed was measured and entered on your chart - even for a woman who had just given birth!! And I'm not that old.............I've told my mum I will never let her go back there again, I will care for her as best I can when the time comes.......

Sadly this situation has existed for a very long time - when I was a social worker in hospital, relatives dared not leave the bedside because they were so concerned about nutrition etc.
Everyone is so busy being "professional", filling in forms, having meetings etc. that the basics of human kindness even go out of the window - it truly is a disgrace.
The situation is little better in some residential and nursing homes.
I wish I knew what the answer was.
Bring back nursing auxiliaries might be one approach.
The wards are cluttered up with extraneous people: cleaners from private companies with no coordination with the hospital/ward; representatives of catering companies etc. The scope for passing the buck is infinite!
And I cannot bear to go on a ward and see the nurses all chatting at the nurses' station - last night's party seems to be more important than the patients' needs.
I am sure there are pockets of quality care and there will be grans who have nursed with great dedicaiton - and I take my hat off to them - but the trend is downwards and it is very sad.

I despair. This not the first or even the tenth time this horrible subject has been endlessly discussed by the media, on television, etc. When is something going to be done? I can see how being busy and having clinical responsibilities might mean that some caring skills become sidelined – although I don't think that is excusable – but how is it possible to leave people in pain, apparently sometimes crying in agony, when painkillers could ease their suffering? Do they think that old people don't feel pain, as they once thought babies and Downes syndrome children didn't, or that they assume all old people just make a fuss about nothing?

That's going to be us, you know - what a thought.