Tuesday 25 September 2012

Britain is no country for old men in hospital and shunted between wards like parcels

 

 

 

A Royal College of Physicians Report entitled :

Hospitals on the edge? The time for action

has claimed that although the number of hospital beds has fallen by 33% in the last 25 years, the number of seriously ill patients being admitted through accident and emergency departments has risen by more than 37%.

How has the Health Service 'managed' this discrepancy ? The Royal College has the answer :

by reducing the quality of care of old men and women who are :

Professor Tim Evans, one of the report’s authors who is a Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital, in London, said:

" This evidence is very distressing. All hospital inpatients deserve to receive safe, high-quality, sustainable care centred around their needs and delivered in an appropriate setting by respectful, compassionate, expert health professionals. Yet it is increasingly clear that our hospitals are struggling to cope with the challenge of an ageing population who increasingly present to our hospitals with multiple, complex diseases. We must act now to make the drastic changes required to provide the care they deserve."
 
A spokesman for the 'Alzheimer’s Society' said:
"People with dementia occupy a quarter of hospital beds, yet constantly we hear that they face poor quality care from staff not trained in dementia care. Bearing this in mind, these latest findings are alarming but, unfortunately, not surprising."

PS.
The Royal College of Physicians is an independent body representing over 27,500 fellows and members worldwide which provides advice and works with Government, the public, patients and other professions to improve health and healthcare and together to examine better processes and standards for treating medical inpatients.  
                                                                                                                                                                                    

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