Dementia Carers 'Could Do Better'

In the same week that hospitals have been criticised as being able to "perform more efficiently", a report into dementia care has slammed the care given to those admitted to hospital.

As a charity said that hospital stays should be shortened to both allow better care and to save the NHS money at the same time, the Stormont Finance Minister Sammy Wilson said figures had estimated that hospital staff productivity in NI falls below that of England by just over 12%.

However, his Executive colleague, Health Minister Michael McGimpsey said it had "increased by some 7% over the past two years" and said that this was a "significant achievement... when we consider demand for services is increasing".

Mr Wilson argued that there remains scope "for the Health Minister to continue to drive forward improvements in productivity within the Health Service and to reducing that productivity gap thus releasing extra funding for frontline services".

Meanwhile, as 'efficiency' is argued over at Stormont, older people's care has been attacked on an other front.

Half of all dementia patients leave hospital in a worse state than when they arrive, it is claimed.

The Alzheimer's Society said today that patients with dementia stay far longer than patients being treated for the same illness or injury without dementia.

It wants their stays cut by a week, saying it will save the health service millions of pounds.

The government said it had already asked NHS hospitals to take urgent action on this issue.

Commenting today, SDLP Elderly Spokesperson Mary Bradley has said the findings of a damning report into dementia care mirror the experiences in her constituency area.

The Foyle MLA said: "We currently have the unacceptable situation where drugs and food for Alzheimer's patients and other elderly people suffering from dementia are being left on trays and not taken by the patients and then lifted once again by the staff.

"There is no record kept if a meal has been taken by the patient or not. This is simply not good enough.

"I must stress the nurses are not at fault in this but are constrained by the limited resources they are forced to work with by the Department of Health.

"Hospitals need to come to the mark regarding their care for people with all forms of dementia. Patients need to get specialist drugs.

"I have had constituents come to me who have experienced very traumatic episodes in hospital with their elderly loved ones. They have told me their parents and loved ones have come out of the hospital in a worse state than they went in.

"The hospital wards are simply not well enough resourced to give the care needed," she claimed and said that hospitals should have specialist areas for elderly people.

(BMcC/KMcA)