NHS Trust “condoned” abuse of elderly patients

An NHS trust allowed the repeated abuse of elderly patients to go unchecked for three years, a report by independent investigators has found.

Patients on a ward at the Garlands Hospital near Carlisle, run by the North Lakeland Healthcare NHS Trust, endured persistent “unprofessional, counter-therapeutic and degrading” treatment. They were tied to commodes and often denied ordinary food, clothing, and blankets, inspectors from the Commission for Health Improvement found.

An internal investigation by the trust was triggered after complaints from student nurses, but the trust failed to curtail the abuse. It was not until a second complaint was lodged by agency nurses in …