Hardly a day goes by without a headline news on the 'abuse' of older patients in our hospitals and care homes ! Why are all these happening today? What are we doing as a Society to reverse the situation?

A degree of 'abuse' and ' poor quality' care have always been recognized and reported in the past. But these days more and more such incidents of neglect and poor quality care are being witnessed. Is it just because , one is looking for them or is it a genuine increase? Perhaps a bit of both.

Firstly , today we have number of statutory bodies empowered to 'monitor' the actual standards of care of he older patients in our institutions and hospitals; and they are beginning to look at the standards and the general behavior of the care staff with a fine tooth comb ! Hence these findings.

It is being noticed ( and many of us had known it for a long time) that the Nurses on hospital wards are spending an awful amount of time doing administrative desk-work without actually doing something direct for their patients. Computer screens at a remote corner of the ward or even inside an office keep them busy; and it seems they are supposed collect data and tick boxes more regularly than nursing patients. This , so called, management culture is pervading the system and beginning to harm the patients.

In old days, nurses used to work only as nurses , caring and handling their sick patients - visiting them regularly , doing various technical procedures, recording vital functions and even helping them take their meals. To days' nurses are more 'academic' - only interested in more complex activities and paper work and computers rather than 'looking after patients' which are usually left to orderlies and other helpers ( if there are any !). Hence the provision of meal time assistants for feeding dependent older and frail patients - and when these bodies are not available , patiets are often left unfed and unwatered !! The result is undernourishment and dehydration of the vulnerable and the helpless! Is that acceptable?

The Care Quality Commission Inspectors are visiting hospitals without any notice , thereby avoiding a 'false' setting-up and are identifying the lack of very basic care and attention to some of the patients,usually old. Dehydration , lack of nourishment with subsequent weight loss , wet bedclothes due to the delay in getting urinals and commodes , pressure sores etc etc - these are being reported by direct witnesses !

The press and the public are not going to tolerate this ; no lame excuse by the ward mangers will satisfy the relatives - they want some action.

Hence the respose by the Prime Minister that every patient must be visited regularly and more personal care and attention be provided. If there is a staff shortage, those well -trained nurses , now 'mangers' moving from meeting rooms to meeting rooms achieving usually nothing , should get into their nursing uniforms and get on with the job they were once trained to do ( although some may need refresher training!) at a lot of public expense. And the ''lay' mangers must stop wasting nursing time on other non-clinical activities !!! The data collection and form filling could be , if absolutely essential, could be delegated to other clerical staff or as a non -urgent activity by the trained nurses. We sincerely hope that these 'reversal' of nursing duties do actually happen and patients ultimately benefit.