Elderly care home
residents are being dressed in other people’s clothes and left languishing
without exercise for five weeks at a time, a new investigation reveals.
Surprise inspections of nearly 200
institutions found older people living in “filthy” accommodation with rotting
plants on the window sills.
The report by Healthwatch, a consumer
champion for the health and social care sector, also revealed widespread lack
of access to GPs and dentists for care home residents.
Sadly, I’m not at all surprised by
these findingsJeremy Hughes, Alzheimer’s Society
Only one of the facilities inspected
had been able to secure regular visits from a dentist, and many others reported
difficulty in persuading local GPs to attend.
Experts called it a “wakeup call” for
the industry and regulators.
While the probe reported some
improvements in the sector, Healthwatch said there remains a “worrying culture
of apathy” in England’s care homes.
The report comes a month after the Care Quality
Commission, the agency responsible for regulating the care homes,
revealed that one in four adult social care facilities inspected since 2014 was
unsafe.
A resident in Wolverhampton told Healthwatch
inspectors: “My laundry is not always returned and is worn by others”.
Another in the same area said she was
keen to take part in exercises with other residents in the lounge but, because
she needed to be hoisted out of bed, was only able to join in every five weeks.
At one facility in South Tyneside,
the budget for activities was just £50 a month.
Imelda Redmond, national director of
Healthwatch England, said care homes were grappling with rising demand and
stretched resources, but added: “Getting the basics right doesn't have to cost
the earth and should be the least we should all be able to expect for our loved
ones and ourselves should we need care support."
Other examples of poor practice
highlighted in the report include one resident waiting an hour to be taken to
the toilet, problems with cleanliness and dilapidated decoration such as
peeling wallpaper, and laundry not being returned to the correct person and
being worn by other residents.
Particular concerns were raised
regarding the suitability of some care homes for residents with Alzheimer’s,
such as a lack of dementia-friendly decoration and poor awareness of the
condition.
Jeremy Hughes, Chief Executive
Officer at Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Sadly, I’m not at all surprised by
these findings.
“They testify to the existing issues
with staff training across the sector, and echo what our investigation last
year found - that one in three home-care workers had received absolutely no
dementia training, resulting in people with dementia left in soiled sheets, and
becoming ill after eating out-of-date food.”
Healthwatch inspectors visited 197
care homes across England between January 2016 and April this year.
The report found many examples of
good care but also concluded that in many homes staff were “rushed off their
feet” with residents picking up the strain.
Inspections in London care homes
triggered fears that much of the training undertaken by staff was not
practical, but undertaken online, with a risk that it was not being completed
by the staff member themself.
Michael Cranfield, from the British
Dental Association, said adequate dentistry was “too often the missing piece in
care homes”.
“We keep seeing vulnerable residents
with dentures that have never been taken out and managers who admit oral health
is at the bottom of their to-do lists,” he said.
SOURCE:The Telegraph, Henry Bodkin
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