West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust Fails To Make The Grade Again - This Time In Ensuring Dignity In Care Of Older People

12.00.00am UTC (GMT +0000) Thu 27th Sep 2007

Pensioners

Commenting on today's Healthcare Commission report on the hospital care of older people, Sandy Walkington, Liberal Democrat Parliamentary Candidate for St Albans, said: "Yet again West Hertfordshire Hospital Trust has been inspected and found wanting.

"It is one of eight hospital trusts out of 23 inspected to be formally warned by the Healthcare Commission for failing to meet core standards in treating older patients with dignity.

"It is not clear from their report where West Hertfordshire in particular has fallen down - whether on privacy, mixed sex wards or its general approach to care for older patients. But it is deeply worrying that the Healthcare Commission picked on West Herts yet again.

"This latest reprimand is part of a depressingly familiar story of failings in our local NHS - worst in the country for staff morale in April, recorded as having the highest number of Clostridium difficile (C diff) cases in Bed and Herts in the same month, in the premier league for debt and then miraculously getting into financial balance.

"The West Herts Trust had self-certified itself as meeting all the standards for caring for older people, as had all the other 23 Trusts included in the random inspection," Sandy noted. "So something must have made the Healthcare Commission smell a rat and conduct this random audit. Now the Healthcare Commission has warned the West Herts Trust that its declarations for this year's health check will have to face particular scrutiny.

"In our recent survey of St Albans households of their views on the local NHS, 71% of the more than 2,000 responses rated local NHS services as getting worse over recent years," Sandy Walkington concluded. "Many of the respondents were elderly with personal experience of local hospital services. Today's announcement provides further evidence to back up their perception that things are not getting better."

ENDS

For further information please call Sandy Walkington on 07802 177317

For the full report, see today's Guardian newspaper: http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,,2177668,00.html

Or the Healthcare Commission website:

http://www.healthcarecommission.org.uk/newsandevents/pressreleases.cfm/cit_id/5815/FAArea1/customWidgets.content_view_1/usecache/false