Patients Association deems hospitals’ care of older patients “unacceptable”

Care delivered to older patients by many hospitals in England is “unacceptable” and “deeply concerning,” the Patients Association claims in a report published on 9 November.

The report details 16 shocking accounts of poor hospital care provided in English hospitals recounted by patients’ families to the association’s helpline in the last year.

The cases seem to show that care is falling down in four fundamental areas—care communication, access to pain relief, assistance with toileting, and help with eating and drinking.

One of the cases outlined in the report involves a woman whose daughter despaired at the failure of nurses to attend to her mother’s basic hygiene needs when she was a patient at Frimley Park Hospital. Another concerns …