Hospital A&Es swamped by 500,000 elderly victims of neglect
Half a million elderly people a year are being unnecessarily admitted to hospital as emergency patients because of stark failings in community care, an official Government report has warned.
The review, into NHS and social care services in England, found almost one in 10 over 75s had been taken to hospital with avoidable conditions – a rise of over 20 per cent in just five years.
The Care Quality Commission, which carried out the analysis, said their findings suggested that some GPs, care homes and community health services were failing to treat vulnerable people “ in the way they deserve”.
Inspectors found safety concerns in one in five nursing homes. Problems included failing to give out medicines safely, not carrying out risk assessments and under-staffing. The report also identified a link between high staff turnover and number of reported deaths of residents.
But the CQC said that there had been no improvement in the care provided by hospitals in the wake of the report into the Mid-Staffordshire scandal.
“In the aftermath of the failures of care at Mid Staffordshire, our inspectors’ biggest concern was that acute hospitals made no improvement in assessing and monitoring the quality of care they provided,” the CQC said. “We also found no improvement in hospital patients being treated with dignity and respect.”
Among elderly patients being admitted to hospitals many were suffering malnutrition, pressure sores and urinary tract infections. “Increases in these admissions represent an additional strain on hospital emergency care services,” the report said
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