I have my doubts about this. Both my parents were probably malnourished when they died. Dying people often stop eating. It's a normal part of the death process.

My husband's grandmother recently was moved to a nursing home from an assisted-living facility because she couldn't feed herself, and the staff was not allowed to feed her, for liability reasons. She's doing really well now, but that's because she has 4 kids looking out for her and taking steps to make sure she's taken care of. Someone else probably would have gone on being malnourished.

The first item is reportedly from the Daily Mail. The full facts.org rebuttal refers to the Sunday Express. Are we talking about matching claims and counter claims?

See the same number? "1,165 cases referred to"

I just LOVE that the nurses are catching the blame for this. Where are the families? Where the hell were they when mom was starving?
I'm often assigned 5 patients who I have to medicate, clean, help ambulate, monitor vital signs, monitor for mental status changes, weigh, measure urine and fecal output...most shifts I don't eat at all, and I pee maybe twice in 12 hours.
Now, don't get me wrong: I love what I do and I care about my patients. But most of these patients have spouses, sons and daughters who cannot be bothered to stop by and visit mom or dad for 5 minutes. They're all ready to file a lawsuit if anything goes wrong, but they're never there to comfort their parents or spouse, or to see if they need additional assurance.
Once again - stop expecting the system to be the universal nanny. Take responsibility for yourself and your family.

"Once again - stop expecting the system to be the universal nanny. Take responsibility for yourself and your family."

Whaaat? But that's so, like, icky! I have friends and stuff to be with and do! It's expensive, too.
I've updated my Facebook page. Isn't that enough?

Besides - Obama cares. That's why they call it that!

Oh, I know, UW. God forbid our loved ones should be hospitalized and expect the facility to provide basic care. You know, like food.

Oh, I know, UW. God forbid our loved ones should be hospitalized and expect the facility to provide basic care. You know, like food.

I can see where this can be an issue. Feeding someone takes a long time, and nurses have a finite amount of time. Someone is going to be sitting in his own shit while grandma is fed her pureed spinach. The solution is more staff, but that costs more money.

It's not even entirely fair to blame the family. If people are working jobs, they don't have time to feed their loved ones several times a day. And what if grandma is an asshole and her family hopes she starves to death?

Or, what if grandma has special needs, and can't eat her daughter's chicken dinner?

Well, part of the solution in this country was CNAs. You simply give tasks like feeding, bedpans, etc. to staff who have been trained to provide basic care.

Importantly, you don't get malnourished in one day...
you get the way when nobody checks on you for a long time. The dehydration one is worse, because you can go some time without food, but die pretty quick w/o water.

But. Staffing shouldn't be an issue, since this is the UK National Health System, right? I thought that was the point of all that tax money going to them... oh, wait, you mean maybe they overpromised?

If it's true, there is more than enough blame to go around, but what is important TODAY, is that no-one else is falls into the shadow like this. Do they have an action plan?

Or will the NHS keep a tally, looking up sadly from their clipboards, as if there's no helping it.

I understand that is pretty much how Mexican and South American prisons work too.
If you family doesn't show up with food, and money to bribe the guards to deliver it to you, you die quickly.

Once again - stop expecting the system to be the universal nanny. Take responsibility for yourself and your family. -- UW Girl at June 28, 2013 3:34 PM

The problem with that argument is most skilled nursing facilities (SNF) or assisted living facilities (ALF) are not government run. Or if they are government run they are privately contracted to a local or county government. (Exception for VA Homes.)

So if I admit my 80 year old mother to a SNF, the contract between me and the SNF is to supply her the care she needs. I shouldn't have to visit her to take care of her. That is the responsibility of the SNF. If the SNF staff doesn't, it is my responsibility to observe that. But it is not my responsibility to come by and feed, make sure she is hydrated, her diaper is changed or anything else. That is the job of the SNF staff.

Just as if someone goes into a hospital for surgery.

UW Girl, I'm not blaming you for being overwhelmed, but blaming the family is not acceptable. I'll blame the SNF and how they staff.

A related issue is the way Medicare is implemented. There is now way to have healthcare over 65 that the primary payer isn't Medicare. But that is another discussion.

Patrick, you're 100% correct about CNA's and their work. When I worked in the hospital, I adored my CNA's, when we had them. They can make or break the floor. When they were there, the floor ran smoothly. Because they did their jobs, I could do mine, which ironically no longer included things such as feeding a patient or bathing their fevered brow. Florence Nightingale should be rolling over in her grave.

This is where Jim P.'s point comes in at also 100% correct. When CNA's are used as sitters (for ameliorating the liability of suicidal or demented patients), floated to another floor that was short staffed (thus making us short staffed, wtf?!?) or low-censused (sent home) because the CFO got a bug up his ass that cutting the hours of the lowest paid employees would make up our $40 million deficit lickety-split, bottom line our patients suffered tremendously. And the fuckwads in management could never figure out why the patient satisfaction scores were shit, and everyone knows we get reimbursed based on those scores. They'd yell at the nurses for the scores even though they knew that by taking away our CNA's we wouldn't be able to do our jobs anymore. That bump-bump, bump-bump was the sound of the bus passing over us after they'd thrown us under and backed up for good measure.

Whew! I've been gone from the hospital for 6 months and I'm still pissed. I love what I do now, hospice. I can now be a true nurse. I can sit with a patient and feed them, I can bathe a fevered brow, I can hold them while they cry. But I'm sure the bean counters will be coming my way again soon.

I firmly believe what's going on over there is the medical funds and therefore also medical staff are beyond exhaustion, they are in fact shell-shocked and can't afford to care anymore. Caring is a luxury. It has become an us-against-them dynamic which means it's no longer a healing practice but a perverted mutation. God help anyone who needs care over there. And we're not far behind.

British hospital food? I'd starve too.

At a hospital I used to work at, the problem with the CNAs was solved by hiring one-to-one sitters. They could be paid minimum wage and their job was solely to sit with the suicidal patients or those with dementia, or those, who for whatever reason, could not be left alone.