to think the NHS is falling down on elderly care? Its all over the news this morning.

[GabbyLoggon]

Todays NHS Ombudswoman report by Ann Abraham ....Elderly care is not always very good.

John Humphries was very annoyed on the Today prog (Radio 4) about what was going on

One example given was a man was watching his mother die in hospital. Her lips were caked and she could not reach a glass of water.

A nurse said "we are not allowed to force feed" (which was ludicrous.)

Its an important subject and we must remember that most care in the NHS is good.

"Gabby"

I completed two years of nursing training ten years ago, most of it on care of the elderly wards and my position was supernumery so I never made up the staffing figures.

I remember regularly being told off for being "lazy" when spending time sitting with and speaking with patients and being sent to re-tidy the linen closet or other similar tasks . Patients were regularly left in wet beds, even when they had buzzed before wetting to ask to go to the toilet whilst staff were sitting on the nurses station talking.

I don't know if I was just placed on particularly bad wards and some of the staff were wonderful and really caring but a lot seemed to think that it was below them to do these jobs.

And yes my job is totally hands on, we have one shift co-ordinator plus 3 in charge nurses across the floor per shift, band 3, 5, 6,7, and 8 nurses take patients

I'm a 3rd year student nurse, and also work as a health care assistant (auxiliary) on the staff bank, which means I work on many different wards.

I have encountered many brilliant nurses, I have also worked with many crap nurses. There are students on my course who consider personal care to be "beneath them" - why train as a nurse then?

I personally have chosen elderly care as my final placement area, before I qualify, as I feel it is an area where I really can make a difference - the whole reason I made the decision to retrain as a nurse.

We all worked like slaves when I was nursing. I often had no breaks and subsequently could go without visiting the toilet for a whole 8 hours!! The only downtime tended to be during visiting time, when nurses tried to back off and let the patients spend time in peace with their loved ones - some observations of 'lazy' nurses may be due to visitors only seeing them at this time, though I know there are lazy nurses here and there. Generally, however, you couldn't meet a more hard working bunch.

I don't think nurses do themselves or their patients any favours by refusing to complain. There is a culture of stoicism in the NHS amongst nurses, so when conditions are dangerous due to lack of staff, nurses will not complain. The Tory administrations treatment of Whistleblowers back in the early 90's didn't help (remember the lovely Graham Pink, any of you nurses)?

My mother isn't old, she's nearly 60. She was admitted to a hospital last year with a cyst on her kidney and was discharged a week later with an infection induced dementia which was left untreated because they thought she was mad. She was discharged sweating and confused. The family doctor came out to see her at home and immediatly diagnosed her with an infection, later that night she fell at home and was found on the floor by my sister the following morning having shattered her femur and unable to move. She was admitted back into the same hospital with another infection last year, she was unable to feed herself as she couldn't reach the table. My sister went to see her and she was placed in a side ward away from the staff, she was unresponsive, dry and grey. She had a catheter as the operation to repair her leg has knackered her bladder nerves, the bag was empty and she had no drip. They had just left her like this. My sister couldn't get her to drink as she was so confused. My sister called me in tears, I called the ward and was told all was fine, she was sitting up eating and drinking. I had to email the chief executive and threaten legal action to make sure she was put on a drip. I went to see her the next day and she was dirty and confused. I'd like to say things improved but they didn't. I ended up suing the hospital on her behalf. She's now at home and on the list for a hip replacement as the pins in the first operation have moved and damaged her hip.

It's stressful having a loved on in hospital, it's 1000 times worse when you can see that they are not being cared for, when you can see that they are dangerously dehydrated and the staff couldn't care less. We all know that if she hadn't have been put on a drip she'd be dead now and that's hard to live with.

I could go on about my mother's 'treatment' but I won't.

tbh I don't think it was laziness that made the nurses/assistants dump FILs dinner in front of him and leave him. I think it was sheer unwillingness to think, to take the two facts this man is deaf and blind and you can only eat if you know you have food and join them together. Obviously, they knew he was deaf and blind because it was on his notes, and they should have known that you can only eat food if you know about it- it was that last leap of imagination they couldn't make. It would not have taken more than a second to move his hands so he could feel the food.

The only way care will be improved is to have more qualified staff on the ward.

On some shifts I have been on I have been the only nurse (no care assistants) and have been helped by a student nurse (who was supposed to be supernumery).

So 1 person to give out drugs, do IV drugs, wash patients, do dressings, give out breakfast/lunch, feed patients, give out lunch time drugs, admit patients, discharge patients, do 4 hourly obs, contact docs if any changes in patients condition, answer bells, change any wet beds, take bloods, write up care plans, write up 16 patient reports.

All in 7.5 hours. Cannot be done.

Care in countries with legal patient to reg nurses ratio have far better patient outcomes than ours.