Causes for concern on hospital wards
HERE are some fundamental things we can all surely expect from a stay in an NHS hospital; in a nutshell, quality care delivered with compassion no matter where we happen to live in the country.
According to the latest official survey of patients, carried out by the Scottish Government among almost 18,000 people, many are receiving this level of service. Indeed, the vast majority of respondents – some 90 per cent – rated the overall care they received in hospital as excellent or good. This is to be welcomed, of course. But doctors and managers cannot rest easy. Below this headline figure sit a number of others that give cause for concern, not least the rather shocking finding that one in four of those surveyed said their condition deteriorated while in hospital.
In some cases there will be clinical reasons for this but the data suggests this might not always be the case. One-fifth of those surveyed described suffering problems such as bed sores, infections and bad reactions to drugs. More than one in 10, meanwhile, said that, when they started going downhill, staff were not prompt to respond. One in six added that noise in their ward was a real problem. And the quality of hospital food was criticised by almost half of patients in Glasgow and Lanarkshire.
Such essentials – food and rest – may seem mundane but they should not be underestimated; studies show they can make a real difference to recovery from surgery or illness. Markedly, one-quarter of the sample said staff did not always treat them with compassion and understanding and one-fifth described being spoken about by a doctor as if they were not there.
Elsewhere, the survey also highlighted delays in the system of discharging patients, with some 40 per cent reporting a hold-up, most likely a lengthy wait for medication.
Quality of care depends on many factors, of course, but in 21st century Scotland the least any patient should be able to expect from hospital staff is to be treated with kindness and dignity. It is up to consultants and ward sisters to ensure all staff are delivering and to intervene when they are not. Managers, meanwhile, must make sure the system for moving patients on when they are recovered is fit for purpose. It is not just hospitals that need to do better. Research by hospice charity Sue Ryder reveals that just one of Scotland’s 15 health boards provides a comprehensive support service for terminally ill patients and their families during evenings and weekend. Taking account of the nature of palliative care, that is simply not good enough.
No health service is perfect, of course, and finding workable solutions to systemic problems can be particularly challenging. But that does not mean doctors, nurses, health managers and indeed politicians should not put every possible effort and available resource into improving outcomes.
After all, with more of us living longer, more hospital care will be required for the range of health problems we will all inevitably acquire. This latest survey suggests some hospitals and staff are ill-equipped to deal with the standards expected of them, never mind with further pressure on the NHS. With this in mind we should all be worried by these findings.