Many hospitals fail nutrition standards

London: Nearly half of hospitals visited by undercover inspectors are failing to meet basic nutrition standards, a report has warned.

Elderly patients are routinely left without anything to drink for hours, with some so dehydrated they are being put on drips.

Other patients found themselves regularly being fed by their relatives because nursing staff were too busy to help.

The appalling failings were uncovered by the Care Quality Commission during inspections of NHS wards.

Other concerns highlighted included hospitals slipping Do Not Resuscitate orders inside patients' notes without telling them or their families.

The Commission found 49 out of 100 hospitals were not meeting basic nutrition standards. This included 17 with "moderate" or "major" concerns.

Dehydration contributes to the deaths of more than 800 patients a year and another 300 die malnourished, according to official figures.

On one ward at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals, inspectors found frail patients had not been given a drink for more than ten hours.

Doctors were so concerned some patients were becoming dangerously dehydrated that they put them on drips.

Next week the CQC will publish a full report into its findings, which is expected to urge hospitals to do more to ensure the elderly do not become malnourished or neglected.

There is widespread concern amongst ministers and patient groups that some nursing staff are allowing vulnerable patients to be neglected.

Learning on the job

At Barnsley Hospital inspectors found staff had not been given any training in how to spot which patients might need help eating or drinking — they were just "learning on the job". And at James Paget University Hospital in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, inspectors came across a nurse telling off a frail patient merely for ringing a call bell. In some hospitals, including the Conquest Hospital in St Leonards, East Sussex, it found staff put Do Not Resuscitate orders inside patients' notes without consent from them or their families.

— Daily Mail