THREE hospital Trusts in Merseyside and Cheshire have been given a clean bill of health for their care of the elderly.
Clatterbridge Centre for Oncology NHS Foundation Trust (CCO), Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and the Countess of Chester Hospital NHS Foundation Trust were all said to meet essential “dignity and nutrition” standards, after being inspected by the Care Quality Commission.
The NHS regulator carried out a nationwide programme which looked into the standards of care at 100 hospitals, and has now published the first 12 reports of those put under the microscope. Information about the other hospitals will be released in the coming weeks.
This first batch of reports has left inspectors with serious concerns about the way some NHS hospitals treat elderly people.
While three of the region’s hospitals passed, three health Trusts elsewhere in the country were said to have broken the law when it came to elderly care, and there were concerns about another three.
Only half of hospitals were providing essential standards of care as set down in the Health and Social Care Act 2008.
At the Alexandra Hospital, in Worcestershire, part of the Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, inspectors expressed “major” concerns about nutrition.
They found “meals served and taken to the bedside of people who were asleep or not sitting in the right position to enable them to eat their meal”.
Hot dinners and puddings were left for 15 minutes to go cold before staff found time to assist patients.
At Ipswich Hospital NHS Trust, inspectors found patients left in night clothes all day and not always taken to the toilet away from where they slept.
At the Royal Free Hospital in Hampstead, west London, inspectors found staff did not always make sure people had enough to eat and drink.
Less major concerns were found at Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust in London, Homerton University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, in London, and the Wye Valley NHS Trust.
Meanwhile, Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, Plymouth Hospitals NHS Trust and Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust were all found to meet all essential standards.
Patients Association chief executive Katherine Murphy said the “tragedy of contrasting experiences continues unabated”. The CQC report covered pensioners over the age of retirement.
Sir Keith Pearson, chairman of the NHS Confederation, said: “We in the NHS cannot tolerate the failure to meet minimum standards in any way, shape or form.”
Health Secretary Andrew Lansley admitted the failure of some hospitals to get basics right was “unacceptable”.
