At the end of May 2011, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) published a detailed report into the standard of care given to elderly people in hospital. The CQC identified three hospitals as failing to meet the essential standards required by law. One of the hospitals identified by the CQC report was the Redditch Alexandra Hospital.

The CQC report highlighted a number of recurring concerns relating to nutrition and to dignity and respect:

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• People not being given the assistance the assistance they need to eat – meaning they struggled to eat and in some case were physically unable to eat meals.
• Their nutritional needs not being assessed and monitored – for example, not being weighed throughout their stay, making it impossible to determine if they were losing weight; or identified as malnourished without an action plan being put in place to address this.
• People not being given enough to drink – water left out of reach or no fluids given for long periods of time. In once case, a member of clinical staff described having to prescribe water on medicine charts to ensure patients got enough to drink.
• People not involved in their own care – their treatment not explained to them; being told what would happen to them without consent being sought or concerns addressed; staff addressing patients relatives rather than the patient themselves.
• Staff not treating people in a respectful way – spooning food into people’s mouths from above without engaging with them; discussing personal patient information in open areas.
• Staff speaking to people in a condescending or dismissive way. One man told us that staff “talked to me as if I am daft.”

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In response to the report by the CQC Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust, who are responsible for Redditch Alexandra Hospital, commissioned an Independent Review of their services for elderly patients. Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust have said that the aim of their review was to “ensure that the immediate actions put in place were sustainable and to provide a lining which could be used throughout Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust.”

http://www.cqc.org.uk//newsandevents/pressreleases.cfm?cit_id=37384&FAArea1=customWidgets.content_view_1&usecache=false

A series of public meetings have now been arranged for patients and members of the public in the Worcestershire area to hear the findings of the Independent Review. The meetings are due to take place between Thursday 14 and Wednesday 27 July at various locations throughout Worcestershire. Full details of the meetings can be found at. http://www.worcsacute.nhs.uk/news-and-publications/media-releases.aspx

Jhodi Ward

Davies and Partners