Are patients not washed any more in hospital?

[Shortkiwi]

I am a nurse of over 40yrs plus. My 93 yr old father has been in hospital for a week. We have visited every day and had to wash and shave him in the afternoon or evening because it hasn’t been done. When I asked if he could be showered one evening, for the next day, I think they showered him but without using soap or shampoo, basically hosed him down from what he reported. His hair was definitely not washed. His teeth have not been cleaned without us doing them. Shaving is definitely not on the agenda. When I was a young nurse it was a given that patients were bathed each day, either in the bathroom or in bed. Teeth/dentures were cleaned and male patients shaved. We were admonished if these things weren’t done. Dad’s ward was very quiet today with several nurses chatting at the nurses station. They were very happy to get us any personal items we didn’t have. I just think if it wasn’t for us he wouldn’t be clean. He actually said, through his dementia, how much better he felt today after we showered him and washed his hair and said it would last him for a while! Which it won’t of course!
We had a list, in the old days, in terms of total patient care, in which we had to tick off items of personal hygiene for every patient in both our theory and practice. I’m sad for those that might not have relatives to attend to personal hygiene these days. It has never been discussed that we would do it, it’s just not been done. Basically, we have had to take the initiative. Years ago there were charts and care plans at the end of the bed, now it’s all computerised. I can excuse the 3 days of hell in A&E but not these last 4 days on the ward. My Dad is not mobile unless he has a lot of help and he is confused.

Acute med nurse here. Horrified by some things I've read on here.
Every morning each patient is either encouraged to wash themselves or washed by staff where needed. If we are really busy unfortunately sometimes it is only a top and tail.
Everyone has to be body mapped, and those who are bed/chair bound have skin bundles in place. We are audited on this.
However many people decline a wash and this is always documented.
It's also very common for patients to tell relatives they haven't been washed when they have or forget they've declined.

Agreed

I never had to stay in hospital and I hope I won't ever have to.

I was diagnosed with a condition last year. It's been managed locally from the GPs. I researched the condition and complications can occur and that would typically mean a spell in hospital. I hope I never reach that point.
I'm just wondering if I should prepare a hospital bag just in case I was to ever take a turn for the worse. If my condition was to worsen, it might be a bowel perforation and I suspect if that happens I won't be able to pack anything. I'm just wondering if I should be somewhat prepared and just pack a bag in case I ever need to go to hospital.

Will there be a shower in the hospital? Should I pack a toiletry bag with shampoo and conditioner and shower gel. No way will I be able to go a week without washing my hair and looking like a dirtbag.

I was in India some 30 years ago on holiday. I had to have a stay in hospital. I have since been hospitalised in the UK. The care I received from doctors and nurses in India, a third world country was superb. The UK bears no comparison. To call it "care" is laughable, nobody cares. You need to be fit to survive the NHS in this country!

Its not unreasonable to ask for a phone call, of course it isn't. It should be doable. But unfortunately its just not always doable straight away. A phone call is less important on a list of priorities than 99% of the jobs placed on a nurse on shift. Its very hard to see that unless you have been in that environment with the pressures placed on you. A phonecall is something that takes a few minutes, but them few minutes get pushed back and pushed back because we have to prioritise. We also find that no one will answer the phones if they arent part of that wards staff. So as above all those people at the desk, they wont answer the phones. The staff that work on the ward are never there to answer the phone. Its impossible. But i do honestly hand on heart mean it when i say every staff member i work with tries their absolute best to give the best possible care to every patient. That best though just isn't good enough for people when it comes to their relatives. And we really wish it could be.

I've name changed to post this as I don't want it linked to my username, but it was the Norfolk and Norwich hospital my parent was horribly neglected with eating, toileting and washing in.

Not washed, ignored when calling for help, left sitting on a bedpan for hours, and left in bed having soiled themselves.

On the ward where I work patients are washed every day. Hair washing and shaving are done only when there is time sadly Due to a need to prioritise.

Yes Seagate. Have a hospital bag ready with all your essential hygiene products, clean PJ's, a towel, slippers and dressing gown. There are showers but you won't want to linger in them.

I will name Northampton and Kettering General Hospitals.

Actually @H2bow the care of the above pp's dad would have been impacted if their phone service had been interrupted and they could not get back to collect their dad if required.

Communication is key and needs to improve - nurses chatting, as happens frequently - I've heard about cake, breaks, curry recipes, blokes and holidays a myriad times - does not help the overworked narrative. It creates a terrible impression and in other sectors responsible for providing services would result in disciplinary action.

Not facilitating patients to remain clean may be about lack of staff but, if this has risen over a number years those in charge: ceo's, directors of nursing, matrons, etc have known about it and had they cared a lot more noise would have been made 10/15 years ago to prevent it. Unless on the whole people who work for hospitals are grubby individuals who couldn't care less.

Not normal here. DH is just out of hospital and he was bed bathed both days he was bed bound and he could then get up and wash himself. He was too weak to shower until he got home.

We have sachets of essentials for emergency admissions, but they aren't best, much better if you have your own. There are showers, but often shared with numerous other patients, all of our showers have chairs in so patients that can do it themselves can do so easier. We provide towels. Again, it is more common for a family member to help their relative with a shower if they need to as staff cant be in the however cubical for the 30-60 minutes it takes to properly shower dry and dress a patient.

@lacey79 this thread is testimony that everyone does not give their best. Open your eyes.
Re the phone call. Time management. By not making one phone call, staff potentially had to answer 22 calls instead (except they didn't) and had an 84-year-old man potentially clogging up A&E for hours.

Wexham Park in Slough is an utter hell hole too.

This is time management though. So many other jobs are far more time sensitive than a phonecall. Everyone i work with tries their absolute best. Of course, that care lapses under the massive pressures staff face, but you have to face the reality that the 100+ patients in an A&E department will have needs more important than making a phone call about a patient that was ultimately admitted to a ward and is safe. Our concern is the patient's needs at the time - not the relatives at home.

in 2013! a relative was in hospital after an accident.
relative was bedbound and we washed him when we visited as he was only given a damp flannel to wash himself in the morning.
his toothbrush and toothpaste were licjed away in his medicine cabinet
we took a bowl, flannels, shaver etc with us for each visit.

it was awful.

The indignity for the patient as well. Horrible.

Just excuses, sorry. The NHS gets away with sub-standard care because it is put on a pedestal and its staff are beyond reproach.
I don't know of any other setting where it would be acceptable to tell a service user/customer that you will be too busy to do something in a few hours time. It's not acceptable but we question the 'too busy' narrative at our peril.

88 year old FIL is in hospital at the moment. He was washed and shaved in the ICU but he hasn't on the main ward he's on now.

I think it's disgraceful, OP, and I'm not keen on the comments here about family members helping. Surely if someone is unwell enough to be in hospital, washing a patient is going to be tricky and a job which trained professionals should be doing. It also might be a pretty mortifyingly embarassing thing for the patient and relatives, if they are not normally that intimate.

Can posters not see that moaning and shaming hospitals will never provide a solution? There is a huge crisis in the NHS in terms of recruitment. Many nurses are described as 'greying', in other words older. Youngsters simply don't want a job where they are set up for so many difficulties. Moan all you like but this problem isnt going away.
www.kingsfund.org.uk/sites/default/files/2022-11/NHS_staffing_shortages_final_web%20%282%29.pdf

My husband had the same experience. He was ill in India and given medication that cured the problems he had been having for years with no help in the U.K. they are far more knowledgeable in India than here.

I was on a ward in Northampton General where the night nurse in charge was far more interested in chatting on her mobile about her forthcoming holiday back home in Jamaica and where to get her acrylic nails done than she was in helping an elderly lady get to the lavatory. I challenged her about this and she said she could make life very uncomfortable. I did report this but went home the following day. Never heard a word about it. I know people whose elderly relatives have begged them not to complain because "they will take it out on me when you have gone". These were not dementia patients.