TOUGH action is needed against hospitals that neglect elderly patients, the Patients Association has said.
It published harrowing stories of pensioners left “starving”, told to go to the toilet in their seat because nurses were too busy and relatives largely ignored while their loved ones died.
The charity said for every one of the 16 stories in its damning report, it receives many more detailing similar levels of poor care.
Several cases involved patients who died in agony because of inadequate pain relief and one patient, Immacolata Lacovara, had a “do not resuscitate” order put in her notes without her family’s permission, meaning nurses at Central Middlesex Hospital refused to help when she struggled to breathe.
The report said it contained “first-hand accounts of some of the very worst stories of poor care in hospitals that have come to the attention of the Patients Association Helpline.”
