How We Treat the Sick: Neglect and Abuse in our Health Services

This book concerns neglect and abuse in our health care system, in particular our hospitals.It is about taking patients to the toilet when they need to go, not leaving them in soiled bedding, not them leaving naked and covered in dried faeces, helping them to eat and drink, protecting them from infection, giving adequate pain relief, managing pressure sores so that patients don't suffer and sometimes die of septicaemia, keeping patients well groomed, not discharging people prematurely from hospital - and even just talking to them. It also highlights how the health care system struggles to diagnose, treat and care for older people with complex needs, and how this leads to neglect and abuse. It is about dignity and compassion.The book sets out comprehensively and from many sources, a wealth of evidence not previously brought together, in order to demonstrate that neglectful care is a systemic blight, rather than mere local blemish. It contrasts this evidence of poor practice with the plentiful policy and good practice statements which urge precisely the opposite.It analyses the causes and factors associated with this state of affairs and points to the widespread denial and lack of accountability on the part of those responsible. It considers who is to blame, and the implications of this serious moral, political, professional and legal failure to protect the most vulnerable of patients from the most appalling of care practices. Most important, the books points to the main obstacles to a solution - and to how they can be removed and change be accomplished.