Cameron Watt: Shame of the NHS

Last year I made repeated visits to the Whittington Hospital in Archway, north London. An elderly relative in his late eighties was seriously ill there. In his ward, Ken enjoyed banter with staff, many of whom were very warm and kind to him. Yet in the few weeks leading up to his death, Ken was denied the level of care he deserved.

The hospital’s greatest failure was in ensuring that he received proper nutrition. Ken’s body was riddled with cancer and his appetite was failing. Yet even when he wanted to eat, Ken was not able to. With diminished strength, he could not use cutlery properly. Routinely meals would be placed in front of him only to be collected, uneaten, 45 minutes later. Only when family members were present to help feed him would Ken be able to eat as much as he wanted. Among the other problems Ken faced was a callous night nurse who denied repeated requests from the geriatric patients for extra bedding to keep out the cold. A fine Irishman who had voluntarily served in the British Army during the War was repaid with very mediocre care in his final few days.

Appallingly, Ken’s experience is typical of what elderly patients are receiving throughout the country. This week’s Healthcare Commission report found that thousands of older people are being treated without dignity or adequate privacy on hospital wards across England. Inspections at 23 acute hospital trusts found that only five are fully complying with national standards on dignity in care, even though they all claimed to do so.

It shows many patients are at risk of malnutrition, with barely one in six of those who need help with eating and drinking receiving it. Incontinent patients are being forced to wear nappies, and sometimes left for hours in soiled clothing. Years after Government promised to abolish the indignity of mixed-sex wards many still exist, with elderly male and female patients forced to share toilets and washing facilities. Trusts ordered to make improvements include seven of the Government's flagship foundation hospitals.

In recent weeks I have been encouraged as the nation’s broken covenant with our armed forces has been increasingly recognised. This is a vital pre-cursor for action to tackle it. However the neglect of the elderly in our hospitals is one symptom of an even more serious broken covenant between the generations. At the next general election, I hope our party puts providing dignified hospital care for the elderly at the heart of our campaigning on the NHS. And each of us must heed the Healthcare Commission’s appeal to blow the whistle whenever we have concerns about the treatment of vulnerable older people.

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Congratulations to Boris Johnson who, as expected, has won the primary to be adopted as Conservative candidate for London Mayor by a huge margin.

I must confess I never got round to voting. With the contest a foregone conclusion, my token involvement has been limited to joining the Backing Boris group on Facebook. There has been a lot of carping about the low turnout for the open primary. However we should be proud to be in the party pioneering new forms of voter engagement and grassroots democracy. In a closer contest the primary system will come into its own.

Of the four short-listed candidates, only Boris could ever depose King Newt. Bookmakers’ odds show that Boris is snapping at Ken’s heels. Aided by higher turnout in the suburbs and a favourable electoral system, Boris has every chance to give Labour a bloody nose in the capital. However, Boris will have to work like a Trojan to win. His considerable wit, charm and force of personality will not be enough. Several people in different fields who have heard Boris speak have expressed disappointment to me at his lack of preparedness.

As well as articulating an agenda for the whole city, Boris will also have to master and respond to local issues in 33 boroughs - an enormous task. However freed to focus full-time on his campaign between now and next May, Boris can certainly do it. For the sake of London, let each of us do all we can to help ensure he does.

Comments

[Simon Denis]

Your report on the NHS appals and frightens me. That we should have come to this! My next emotion is a fierce anger - even hatred for the people who have brought this state of things about.

Who are they?

The Labour party. They set up the Stalinist health service in the first place. The next sixty years merely witnessed the slow rotting away of standards. To be sure, it has not been as bad as in a fully socialist state. The surrounding relatively free economy has seen abundance sufficient to maintain the creaking structure. Things are different now. The decline in manners and morals; the refusal to train a body of simple, practical nurses; the divisions in the community brought by wave upon wave of mass immigration - all these developments mean that the old virtues of England which alone sustained nationalised healthcare have been eroded. It is - can people not see? - the loss of gentleness and care which is so appalling. Contrary to the saccharine myths purveyed by the likes of Alan Bennett, these qualities are drowned by state largesse and they are fostered by the spirit of self-reliance. A socialist polity, attempting to relieve people of all responsibility, makes them selfish, depending on the man in the uniform to decide, to act and to work for them. This is one of the reasons socialist states collapse, with everyone relying on the next tier of competence. The very spirit of striving is nullified.

Equally important in promoting efficiency and care was the strong sense of togetherness, traditionally engendered in European states by a long history of predominant ethnic homogeneity. This was the tolerationist compromise - humane enough to see that we are all human; humane enough to see that mere humanity is thin gruel when it comes to feeling at home. It stands equipoised between the darkness of fascism and the new darkness of the multiculturalists.

What then, to do? Core vote! Bring out the core vote and promise a revolution against this sterile, inhuman, socialist status quo.

[Lindsay Jenkins]

Many congratulations on writing as you have done when every word must have been as painful to write as it is to read.

This is not a new situation. My family (for one) has experienced versions of this going back to the 1950s.

Nor is appalling treatment and lack of care limited to the elderly. While individual doctors and nurses as you have described may do their best, the overall system is broken and as far as I can judge has never worked.

I know it is contentious to compare the NHS with the overall US medical system but I have repeatedly been told by British doctors who work here and there that what the NHS offers is roughly the same standard as Medicare in the US – that is for those at the bottom of the pile who cannot pay. And that is what I too have seen during my years living in the US.

The vast range and standard of medical services available to most Americans is not available here other than for the few paying for private medicine.

Why we in this country laud the NHS I cannot fathom but it engenders huge support verging on the hysterical. When you see what others enjoy abroad that support is totalling mystifying.

[Jonathan Sheppard]

A great article Cameron that certainly echoes the treatment of my grandfather in his final days. He had superb care - but when he couldnt feed himself it was left to my Nana. When she wasnt there he didn't eat.

What I find shocking is the state of so called care homes (both private and local authority controlled) in this country. My Nana who is now 85 gets two buses to go and see her sister in her mid 90's, who is in a care home. Luckily her sister has all her faculties. I am told story after story about how for example, no one comes to take the eldery to the toilet when they need to (as they need help) - and when my Nana has gone to get a member of staff she has been told - what's the worry, the individual has a pad on! Oh - so that's what we should come to expect in this country. When you get old and end up in a care home expect to (and apologies for the language but it really does anger me) sit around in your own piss - because its easier that way.

Who does routine checks on these places? What qualifications do you need to work in them. It is an absolutely disgraceful set of affairs which really makes me not want to ever get old in this country.

[Sally Roberts]

This is completely and utterly shameful! The excuse is often used that staff are underpaid and morale is low - but that simply does not excuse what amounts to downright cruelty. What is wrong with these staff? Do they not realise that they too will be old one day and may need the care and love they are denying to others?!

[Matt Wright]

Like others I am genuinely angry about this. So many people I meet relay the same stories. What is going on? Why are elderly people who need help to eat being left food in front of their faces like some form of torture? Sorry I just don't get it. Is it some form of new (sick) thinking - if they can't eat they should fade away - I'm grappling to understand why this problem is so widespread.
Its not just health. We've got the Govt and some senior police claiming crime is down and so many sick stories of defeat in the face of crime. In my area the council took out the glass from bus stations because people were vandalising the glass so the CCTV could not see through them. A few weeks before the police were at the station for press photos saying they had stopped crime at the site!! The real story is that elderly people are waiting in the wet and cold and the criminals have won. What the hell is going on in our society? Cameron get angry this week for all of us and for our country,

Matt

[Victor, NW Kent]

A true Socialist knows that the peasantry and riff-raff do not matter. If they have to make some sacrifices for the good of the State then so be it. It is the ruling elite that matter. It is obviously impossible to provide for their salaries, perks and bullet-proofed, gold-plated pensions if one has to make provision also for the care of people who can no longer work or pay taxes.