Horrific neglect of the elderly in hospitals: now the fightback begins

Elderly care in hospitals is a national disgrace

We need to talk about care: one in five hospitals fail the elderly so badly that they are breaking minimum legal standards. We're talking neglect so horrific, that patients were left to lie in their own faeces, and to die of dehydration.

Today, the Patients' Association and Nursing Standard magazine have launched a campaign – appropriately called "CARE". It stands for Communication, Assistance with toileting, Relieve pain and Encourage adequate nutrition. The basics, you would think, of nursing. But the basics are precisely what risk getting lost in the shuffling of admin papers and multitude of targets imposed from trusts desperate for government funding.

I attended a meeting, earlier this month, organised by the Patients' Association and Nursing Standard. Nurses, NHS big wigs and patients discussed the way forward and I was impressed by the chest-beating honesty of the nurses. They were ashamed of what was happening in their profession; and determined to flush out bad practice. No one excused the neglect by claiming that "the cuts" made it impossible to be compassionate rather than cruel, nurturing rather than nasty. (If they had, the patients present would have shouted them down: budgets do not breed values.)

The discussion brought face to face, those who should care, and those who need to be cared for; and the campaign will involve both groups. Only by engaging the patient as well as the practitioner can we change the status quo. The to-do list is long _ and some items are complicated. Still, it makes sense: training that includes core "care" values; encouraging whistle-blowing by ensuring it doesn't jeopardise your job; increasing the ward rounds for inspection; take precautions against nurse burn-out by ensuring job rotation.

Perhaps the most important must do" is leadership – someone who takes responsibility for what goes on in the wards. Right now, if you complain about patient treatment, as Liz Pryor did at the West Suffolk hospital, your complaint goes to the "complaints manager", who then brings it to the Board's attention. You may or may not be given an interview (Liz obtained two) with the CEO, who in turn will invite the ward sister to attend the meeting. But no one in this chain of command seems to be accountable for the patient.

Liz Pryor's anger at the treatment her late mother received at the West Suffolk hospital still bubbles over when she speaks. She has become a spokeswoman for the Patients' Association because she cannot bear to think how many other mothers and fathers are lying in hospital beds, struggling to get a glass of water, or reach the toilet without humiliation. Her mother died the night she was discharged from hospital. The GP referred the case to the coroner, who came back with the verdict, "natural cause". "I don't want to live in a society where neglect is a natural cause," Liz tells me. Neither do I.