Struggling to complain about hospital/care home care?

The Parliamentary and health service ombudsman has today issued a press statement confirming their findings of a poll in which “over half of family members with a concern say it is difficult to complain about the hospital care or treatment of an older relative.”

A previous report by the ombudsman highlighted “that many older people are afraid to raise the alarm when something goes wrong in their care and worry about what will happen to them if they do”

Of most concern are the findings of the survey that over 1 in 3 were concerned about the care or treatment of their relative in hospital or felt staff had an inadequate understanding of their older relatives condition or care needs.

Also of concern was the failure to keep relatives informed of condition, care and treatment of their relative and a lack of involvement in their older relative’s care and treatment . This covers all areas including care, dignity and respect.

Occasionally this general concern can translate into failures of care which result in avoidable falls and subsequent injury, bed sores or a number of other problems for the older patient or client.