Too many patients left to die on wards, say nurses
DYING patients are being failed in their final days because the NHS is under too much pressure to care for them properly, nurses have warned.
Patients are being left stranded in hospitals rather than being allowed to die at home or in hospices, a survey of NHS nurses claims.
Others are dying alone because staff are too stretched to spend time with them, the report found.
Almost all nurses – 94 per cent – say they have witnessed patients dying in hospital when they had expressed the desire to die at home, in a hospice or care home setting.
The survey of more than 600 nurses, conducted by Marie Curie and Nursing Standard journal, found most nursing staff believe it is now a ‘common occurrence’.
One nurse said patients were dying in hospital because ‘fast track services to get patients home where they want to die [are] not very fast’.
Carole Walford, chief clinical officer at Hospice UK said: ‘Nurses continue to face huge barriers. Many hospices are already reaching out to hospitals to work together to improve end-of-life care in acute settings.’ Following the worst flu season in seven years, nurses were also worried about the impact of this year’s winter pressures on end-of-life care.
Almost eight in ten feel the winter crisis had a negative effect on the quality of care they are able to provide to dying patients.
The NHS has faced repeated criticism over the way it deals with dying patients – most controversially over the Liverpool Care Pathway introduced in the 1990s.
Hospitals were told to phase out the system in which patients were denied food and drink for up to 30 hours before their deaths after a campaign by the Daily Mail.
Eleanor Sherwen, the Royal College of Nursing’s professional lead for end- of-life and palliative care, said: ‘We only have one chance to get end-of-life care right. How people die remains in the memories of their loved ones for a long time.’
Last night the Department of Health and Social Care did not respond to a request for comment.