Most vulnerable hospital patients most likely to go hungry
Were currently doing some work to look at both the savings Extra Care can deliver to adult social care budgets in Cumbria and the help it provides for people to maintain a good quality of life at home. The findings of this survey indicate why this is so important. It tells us:
More than one in three vulnerable pensioners are left to go hungry in hospital, a major study has found, as it warns of “endemic” failures in NHS care of the elderly.
The research – the most in-depth of its kind – found that the oldest and most defenceless hospital patients were the most likely to be let down.
Experts said the findings were “disturbing” and a “sobering” picture of the way that the frail pensioners are treated by the NHS.
Overall, 38 per cent of those who needed help to eat said they did not always get it.
The figure rose among older patients, the analysis of official health service data found by the London School of Economics found.
And for those who might remember my enthusiasm for mutualizing home care in village settings just to let you know we are still making slow but sure progress!!