Focus on care of the elderly

Health inspectors raised concerns over the care of elderly people after they carried out an unannounced inspection visit to Wishaw General Hospital.

Healthcare Improvement Scotland were asked by the Scottish Government to carry out a programme of inspections to provide assurance that older people are being treated with compassion, dignity and respect while they are in an acute hospital.

While there were many positives in the report, the inspectors found some areas for improvement during their visit in March.

Inspectors raised concerns around the completion of the assessment of capacity to consent and staff understanding of Adults with Incapacity (AWI.

They also stated older patients were not always accurately assessed within the national standard recommended time frames.

Since the visit in March, work is taking place to ensure a range of clinical assessments, and resultant care plans, are carried out timeously.

Frances Dodd, NHS Lanarkshire’s Director of Nursing, Acute Division said:“We welcome any opportunity to enhance the level of care we provide to older people and we have put in place a detailed action plan to address the areas identified by the inspection.

“We were encouraged that the vast majority of care provided met patients’needs.“

During the inspection inspectors carried out patient interviews and used patient and carer questionnaires.

Frances added: ”The inspectors highlighted some of Wishaw General’s key strengths in providing a high standard of care to older people.

“For example, they noted the positive communication and interactions between staff and patients and that all patients were being treated with dignity and respect.

“We were pleased to note that all patients praised the care they received and that staff had recognised the change in culture from being target driven to more safety driven.”