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FAMILIES TOLD TO NURSE PATIENTS
The report claims nurses are finding it impossible to meet all patients' needs

The report claims nurses are finding it impossible to meet all patients' needs

Sunday January 27,2013
By Lucy Johnston

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FAMILIES should carry out nursing duties to ease pressure on hospital staff, a controversial report will demand this week.

As well as feeding and washing patients, relatives should be on hand to assist them to the toilet.

Such duties should be made mandatory, like jury service, according to the founder of the think-tank behind the recommendations, which will be sent to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt.

The report, collated by thinktank 2020health and entitled Too Posh To Wash?, claims nurses are finding it impossible to meet all patients' needs as the number of elderly and dementia patients soars.

Julia Manning, founder of 2020health, says new rules should be stipulated in the NHS Constitution, making it mandatory for relatives and friends to help on the wards unless it is impossible for them to do so, "just as jury service isn't always possible".

She said: "Many of the distressing stories we hear of inadequate care stem from patients not having help with basic needs such as assisting to the toilet, feeding and drinking.

"If you have 20 patients all being served lunch at the same time and 15 need help with eating, it is an impossible task." The report follows a series of nursing scandals, including the revelation that 43 NHS patients starved to death in hospitals in 2011 while a further 287 died malnourished.

The Office for National Statistics also recorded 558 cases in which patients were severely dehydr a t e d when they died.

At an inquest last July it emerged that Kane Gorny, 22, died of dehydration at St George's Hospital, in Tooting, south London after becoming so desperate for a drink he rang 999.

The report has been welcomed by nursing and hospital groups. Last night Clare Gerada, chairwoman of the Royal College of General Practitioners, said: "It should be mandatory that relatives and friends help wherever possible.

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Relatives should wash, feed and care for their loved ones in hospital says new NHS report
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"Why not? I cannot believe Mr Cameron would be against that." Meanwhile Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nurses said: "The family should be at the heart of planning and encouraged to visit. Who is better to advise on personal habits than his family?" The report has angered patients' groups, however.

Katherine Murphy, of the Patients' Association, said: "The first duty of the NHS is to provide safe care to patients and not to depend on relatives who may be frail or elderly or unable to visit as regularly because they have to work."

The report also calls for a national accredited training and registration system for healthcare assistants. It follows undercover footage taken in 2011 of staff abusing adults with learning difficulties at Winterbourne View home in Bristol. The report states: "Today it is possible to apply for a job in a care home with no experience. The bulk of the care given outside acute hospitals is to vulnerable, frail and often elderly patients...they have as much right to protection as the very young."

The think-tank says suppliers should be given financial incentives to encourage excellence and those who fall short should lose their contracts.