Abuse of the Elderly in Hospitals and Carehomes

To be elderly and find yourself having to go into hospital is both a tense and frightening time, the days where we were cared for by nurses that actually cared for their patients is over, elderly patients are looked upon as a burdon and mostly treated with contempt.When you are on a hospital ward today expect to be ignored when you request a commode, be prepared to be shouted at if you have soiled yourself even though you had asked for the commode, this sort of thing goes on everyday in hospitals throughout the country, sad, but true.Patients unable to feed themselves have their food put down infront of them but the food is then removed and it is written down as the patient did not want to eat, nobody available to help them feed themselves, so the patient goes without food, the same thing happens with drink, i have heard of cases where people have to be put on drips just because no drink was put in the patients reach, these things again happen everyday, why? The reason why these things happen is that there is a total lack of empathy when it comes to elderly patients, it would not happen in a childrens ward, it would not be tolerated there.
Nurses today are not trained like they were years ago, they spend more time in the classroom looking at books rather than getting hands on experience at the basics of nursing, things like washing, feeding, being made comfortable, just basic care and attention to the basics when people are at their most vulnerable.
I was told by a senior nurse trainer that todays nurses feel that certain things are beneath them, the phrase, Too posh to wash, was used to desribe nurses today.The problem is far worse in carehomes than in hospitals, there is less scrutiny,cases of people being drugged so they do not move about or being tied to chairs is quite common, there are many many stories of patients dieing because they have been allowed to develope sores so bad that they have to be transferred to hospital, in alot of those cases it is too late and the poor person dies because of their disgusting injuries, these things need not happen if only the staff did their job with care and attention, my mother was cared for at home for years and never got a pressure sore, she was totally bedbound.The Human rights of these people is not covered in private carehomes at the moment, so the standard is lower than if it were a council run carehome, there should be no diffrence, that loophole in the human rights act needs to be closed.It is only because these elderly people have loving and caring relatives that there are not more terrible cases that we hear about, the national press dont find cases of elderly abuse that exiting so the coverage is very poor.There are now half a million cases of abuse every year in hospitals and carehomes but nothing seems to be happening to change this stigma in our once proud country.
Going into hospital today is like playing russian roulette, go in with a simple problem and you can come out in a wooden box, thats the state of play in todays caring society.If you wish to contact me regarding this article then please Email me.anthonyrichardrhodes@lobbyist.com