Hospitals failing people with dementia

By Sunil Peck

More than 75 per cent of people with dementia receive unsatisfactory care in hospital, a report has found.

The report, Counting the Cost: caring for people with dementia on hospital wards, is based on the experiences of 1300 people who have cared for a person with dementia and 1100 nurses and ward managers in general hospitals in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The report found that nurses did not understand dementia, that there was a lack of person-centred care, staff failed to help people with dementia eat and drink, that decisions were made without involving people with dementia and that they were treated without dignity or respect.

More than 50 per cent of the carers who participated in the report thought that a stay in hospital had led to a worsening of the symptoms of dementia with increased confusion and agitation.

The report found evidence that people with dementia were staying in hospital far longer than someone without dementia being treated for the same condition.

So while the average length of stay for a person without dementia being treated for a fractured hip is a week, the report found that people with dementia might spend a month or more in hospital.

Neil Hunt, Chief Executive of Alzheimer’s Society, said that it was "scandalous" that the quality of care for people with dementia was so inconsistent.

He said: "At least £80 million a year and probably hundreds of millions could be saved if people with dementia are enabled to leave hospital one week earlier. Hospitals must commit to reducing the length of stay if we are to stop people with dementia deteriorating in hospital and lessen the chance of people being discharged to a care home."

Ann Reid, whose experience of dementia comes from caring for her husband and mother, said that the biggest problem was the lack of awareness of the condition among nurses.

Her Husband spent two weeks in hospital in Eastbourne 6 years ago following two minor strokes.

She said: "He was admitted to hospital walking, talking, fully continent and able to feed himself. He was in three wards and was eventually put into a side room. He was shaved only once, lost over a stone and was sedated against my orders because he was so confused that they wanted to keep him quiet."

She said that her mother had fallen off a trolley in the A&E department in the same hospital 18 months ago and staff had given three different accounts of how it happened.

But she added: "Once in the ward, she had a bed by the window with a view of trees, blue sky and sun and the staff were wonderful. That was in the medical assessment unit. I was allowed to visit at any time, and she was helped to eat."

Ann Reid said that while her mother was being treated in a different ward for a chest infection in the same hospital 12 months later, her mother became so terrified by the surroundings that she tried to get out of her chair and fell.

She was moved to a bed near the nursing station but was still so frightened that she banged on the table by her bed to attract attention. Staff responded by leaving a written notice on her bed asking her to stop banging and to relax.

Alzheimer's Society has put forward a number of recommendations including that the NHS recognises that better care for people with dementia could save millions of pounds; that nurses are trained to care for people with dementia; that the use of anti-psychotic drugs to sedate people with dementia on general wards is reduced; that friends and family are more involved in the care of people with dementia; that people with dementia receive the food and drink they need in hospital and that people with dementia are treated with dignity and respect.