Earlier this year, a report by the Care Quality Commission revealed poor standards of care that resulted in patients not being given enough food and drink and not being treated in a dignified way.
The Daily Mail runs regular headline hitting stories about poor care in its “Dignity for the Elderly Campaign”.
It is a frightening scenario for our growing elderly population who are becoming fearful of being admitted to hospital lest they be at best ignored and at worse ill-treated.
But is this lack of care and compassion for the elderly really as widespread as we are led to believe? As always, negative stories and reports, despite mainly being in the minority, get far more publicity than positive ones. Patients expect, and indeed deserve, to be well treated in the National Health Service. If they are it does not make the headlines. If they are not, it does.
My 90-year-old mother spent five days in hospital last week. She could not have received better care from the dedicated nurses and doctors. I can’t believe she is an exception.
She was found at home by a district nurse, who called for an unrelated condition, dehydrated and confused. I was in France on a long weekend break and, in her confused state, my mother was unable to tell the nurse how I could be contacted by mobile phone.
By the time I arrived back the following evening, she was being well looked after in St Helier Hospital in Carshalton, Surrey, where she had been taken by ambulance.
She was in a pleasant four-bedded ward with her own radio and television and bedside phone. The nurses, despite being short staffed and overworked, were helpful and caring.
Once they had my phone number, they kept me regularly informed as to her progress.
My mother was full of praise for them – and so was I. Her only grievance was the complaints and demands of other patients. “Some of them are so rude to the nurses and so demanding, especially the old people”, she said. “I don’t know how the nurses put up with some of us.”
Concerned as to how she would cope when she returned home – my mother is deaf and lives alone – the staff co-ordinated her discharge with her local social services and within minutes of an ambulance delivering her to her front door a care worker was on the doorstep to make sure she was OK.
This care worker will visit daily until my mother is sufficiently confident to look after herself again, which knowing my mother will be days rather than weeks. The cost to my mother: nothing. I am overwhelmingly impressed.
But this is not an isolated incident. And it cannot be put down to the fact she lives in the leafy middle-class borough of Epsom and Ewell Borough Council.
Several months ago, my 91-year-old mother-in-law fell over and broke her hip. She was taken by ambulance to the accident and emergency department at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, south London. Her care was equally superb.
She was also only discharged after hospital staff had liaised with local social services and organised a care package. Sadly, she is now dependent on a walking frame and too nervous to leave her home.
The carers visit twice a day to help her out of bed, ensure she can dress herself properly, assist with cleaning and cooking and even get her shopping. And she lives in the working-class inner London Borough of Lambeth.
So instead of looking at the negative side of elderly care we should concentrate on the positive things that are making life better for us all as we get older.
Of course, in organisations as massive as the NHS and social services, and with the enormous population of pensioners, there will always be some below standard care. But thankfully in my experience it is the exception and not the rule.
