Compassion for patients is a priority
Ongoing concerns about the state of the health service in Northern Ireland were heightened this week with reliably-sourced claims that some elderly hospital patients were not being properly fed and were left malnourished.
Age NI confirmed it had been made aware of instances where non-pureed food was given to older patients with acute swallowing difficulties, while others complained that while in care they were given no help or encouragement to assist them in eating their daily routine meals.
Food and proper hygiene are fundamental processes in patient welfare and recovery and if the content and quality of meals served to patients falls below what is required, the consequences bode ill.
Age NI quite rightly maintains that nutrition should be treated as an integral part of the care of any person in hospital and the latest revelations need to be addressed by health department managers.
In 2007, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey. launched a Nutritional Standards for Patient Food in Hospitals' programme, which screens patients, particularly the elderly, for risks of malnutritional problems.
This programme is helpful, but its implementation must be robust at all of our hospitals and care homes and very thorough monitoring needs to be always in place.
Human resources in nursing and ancilliary sectors are stretched to the limit and, with economic cut-backs, the situation may not improve.
More compassion and commonsense, however, are needed if patients are always to receive the level of care and attention they require.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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