OLDER people in Scotland’s hospitals need to be treated with greater compassion, dignity and respect, a health watchdog has concluded.
Healthcare Improvement Scotland (HIS) has demanded doctors and nurses do more to make the care more “patient-centred”. It also called for staff to stop using inappropriate language when talking about older patients in their wards.
In its first six-monthly report into standards of acute care of the elderly the watchdog highlighted several areas of improvement needed in hospitals across the country following a series of announced and unannounced visits to eight hospitals between February and July this year.
Ian Smith, HIS acting chief inspector, said: “In some instances, staff did not always consider the patient’s privacy and dignity when discussing personal issues. We also found that patients were not always screened to assess their nutritional needs when they are admitted to hospital.”