“Everyone who goes into a hospital or a care home is entitled to the fundamental aspects of care.” This is the message that came from the Patients Association when they launched their “CARE Campaign” on 9th November, and it’s one that needs to be highlighted.
Although the CARE Campaign is aimed at nurses and speaks of patients in general, it’s based around the most frequent complaints that the association receives, which are issues associated with communication, toileting and pain relief, along with nutrition and hydration. The issues highlighted are not only highly relevant to doctor–patient relationships in this sector but are essential to care for elderly patients no matter what their condition.
It’s been announced that the General Medical Council has drawn up new guidelines for doctors, urging them to be “guardians of public safety”, and reminding them of their basic duties when it comes to care for elderly patients, which seem to have been slipping into neglect in recent years. The instructions include ensuring that the comfort and dignity of elderly patients is not compromised, and that doctors focus a little more of their attention on their non-clinical duties.
The draft guidelines will be added to the General Medical Council’s Good Practice Guide, a doctors’ handbook, the final version of which will be published next year after it has been reviewed by senior doctors, health care workers and patient groups. What is sending ripples of disbelief and concern across the industry, though, is not so much the guidelines but the fact that they are needed in the first place.
The General Medical Council has acted after the publication of a damning report by the Quality Care Commission, a watchdog directed by the government to carry out spot checks on hospitals. The aim was to check if elderly patients were properly fed and respected; the results, I think, speak for themselves. The supposed care for elderly patients included some people being left without anything to drink for over ten hours, over-stretched staff having little time to accompany patients to the toilet, and other patients having to bang on their bed rails just to try and attract the attention of staff.
These shocking details were publicised in a recent report by the Daily Mail, who, along with the Patients Association and Patient Concern, have been running campaigns to promote care for elderly patients for many years. While their efforts have played a vital role in highlighting issues and campaigning for change, there is still evidently much work to be done.
In the private sector, we are well aware of the issues and challenges facing the NHS on a daily basis, but poor care is simply unacceptable. Doctors should be much more proactive when there are problems with basic care for patients, and take responsibility, along with the rest of their staff, to ensure patients’ needs are met and they are treated with the respect they deserve.
Once the guidelines are officially published by the General Medical Council, doctors found in breach of them could face a GMC Panel or lose their jobs. Whether you are picturing an ideal world, or the day-to-day realities of health care, this situation shouldn’t exist. Perhaps now these guidelines are in place progress towards better care for elderly patients will be made. As Katherine Murphy, Chief Executive of the Patients Association, told the Daily Mail, “doctors should see a patient as a human being, and whatever their need, they should be able to provide it.”