The quality of care to the elderly in England has been emphasized by a committee of politicians, regulators and charities, which has required new policy implementation in NHS.
The committee has made it known that the elderly are being simply treated like objects, and that nurses and care workers at NHS should sign up for the new code of conduct.
The new code guarantees that elderly patients are treated with dignity and respect.
Health care reforms at England and its justification are very transparent. A series of scandals and lapses have been rocking the NHS lately.
The abuse of inmates at a care home for the mentally retarded was in the news lately. Although lapses similar to these are common throughout the world, these incidents rarely find their way out to the public.
It is unfortunate that such reforms occur at a time when funding the elderly care is at an increased scrutiny than ever before.
The call for the new Dignity Code to prevent abuse is made in a letter to The Daily Telegraph signed by the care minister Paul Burstow and his Labor shadow, Liz Kendall, as well as charities, trades unions and academics.
The letter, signed by 21 public figures including the heads of Age UK, the Royal College of Nursing, the TUC and the care regulator the Care Quality Commission, demands an end not just to extreme cases of abuse but also everyday practices which diminish the dignity of older people.
The signatories of the new “Dignity Code” drawn up by the National Pensioners’ Convention – which represents elderly groups around the country, sets out how pensioners should expect to be treated in their homes, residential care, and the NHS.
Among the many difficulties forced by the elderly include, pensioners repeatedly being prevented from making up their own minds, denied treatment on the basis of their age, spoken down to and denied their privacy, according to the committee.
It calls for hospitals, care homes and other institutions to agree a simple set of common standards of care for the first time to prevent cases of abuse and neglect. Care workers could eventually have this new code written into their contracts, supporters hope.
In the days where health systems are increasingly failing due to falling human values and ethics, the plight of the elderly is no exception.
The elders are a section of a population increasingly not wanted at homes. The fragmented and dissected families which increase by the day, are only leaving the elderly population more helpless.
The days when kids, parents and grandparents lived together, are disappearing at a rate like never before.
We have reached the days where dads abandon their kids. Thus it isn’t a big surprise that sons abandon their parents. The society had always been a solace point for the elderly. But with the society itself coming under strain, the quality of elderly lives is a question mark.
