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It’s The Wonder Of The World it is

More than 2,000 people have died of dehydration or malnutrition while in a care home or hospital in the last decade, according to figures published by the Office for National Statistics.

No, this isn’t the LCP or anything like that.

The figures show the “underlying cause of death” in 2,162 recorded cases since 2003 was dehydration or malnutrition.

Just shitty care.

Wonder Of The World.

13 thoughts on “It’s The Wonder Of The World it is”

  1. Those “care homes” wouldn’t happen to be, largely, one of the few privately-managed parts of the system, would they?

  2. I think they are mostly run by councils these days, but if you have the facts JamesV I’d be interested in seeing them.

  3. As I’ve said before, my grandmother died in the Good Hope Hospital in Sutton Coldfield five years ago. She went in with heart failure (at 86 she wasn’t coming out) but was in good general physical shape otherwise.

    She died a fortnight later with oral thrush, bedsores, in soiled bedding, incoherent, and having lost a lot of weight.

    My aunt was an old school ward sister and did what she could for her. The actual nurses on the ward didn’t care one jot. Her food was left out of reach, her water likewise. She was allowed to soil her bed.

    We were only allowed to visit her one hour a day (MRSA) and I remember giving her several cups of water which she drank like a woman dying of thirst, which I suppose she was.

    This was a woman whose husband had fought through the War, a woman who had manned the buses driving through the Blitz, who raised seven children to be decent and responsible and contributory members of society, and had never taken one penny from the State until she reached pensionable age.

    I fervently hope that all of the proponents of the NHS – including PaulB, JohnB and others – on here, and the nurses, and the bureaucrats, experience a similar death.

  4. Eddy, FWIW, from memory I am pretty sure the original Telegraph piece (from which Graun piece is lifted) did not say if the homes in question were private or NHS/council run.

    It has now disappeared from the Telegraph site tho’ I haven’t tried very hard.

    Do some terminal patients die “from” dehydration in the same way that AIDS patients die “from” pneumonia? Do feel free to tell me if that’s bollocks – it’s something I think I read. Just wondering why T’raph has pulled it.

  5. There’s no reason to think that these deaths have got anything to do with poor NHS care. In some cases, they will be due to neglect in care homes, which are mostly privately run. In some cases, they will be people living in their own homes, admitted to hospital too late. In some cases, they will be people who refuse to eat or drink while in hospital.

    Poor hospital care does happen. But these statistics are the wrong place to look for it.

    I hope that everyone has the most comfortable death possible. Whatever their views on systems of healthcare.

  6. @PaulB – leftists like you have encouraged the view of the NHS that it is untouchable, and unimpeachable, and cheered the diversion of funds which might be spent on medical care to the bureaucracy which is part of what has led to nurses in wards refusing to give elderly women water.

    That’s why I hope – fervently – that you die of thirst, your own urine soaking into your bedsores, in an NHS hospital.

  7. Ah – now I see it.

    Death certificate data is total rubbish. The problem could be 100 times larger or smaller, you simply can’t trust these data.

    In the UK there are two main motivators for determining cause of death – don’t have an inquest, and be able to sign a crem form in good conscience if that is what the rellies want.

  8. Eddy,

    “89% of publicly funded homecare is now provided by the independent sector, compared to 5% in 1993. The main purchasers of homecare are local authorities who are estimated to buy 80% of the hours of care provided by the independent sector.”
    Source: http://www.ukhca.co.uk/pdfs/domiciliarycaresectoroverview.pdf

    So the government pays, but the work is privately managed. That’s quite a sensible arrangement, especially when the buyer can get prices from a large number of suppliers.

  9. It isn’t the LCP?

    I thought “dehydration or malnutrition” was exactly what the LCP did – by design, so it’s just what you’d expect to find.

    Did I miss something?

  10. Death certificates are filled out on a best guess basis and are renowned for being of poor quality. The error rate is something like 40% if one carries out a PM and compares the findings.

    Nursing care in the NHS is very poor. The story above is sadly all too familiar to anyone who deals with the NHS and no one ever gets fired.

    And yes dehydration is one way of dying if you are terminally ill. I’ve always thought a cruel and perverse way of dying.

  11. Having had both parents in nursing homes I’ve had some experience of the system.
    To say there’s such a thing as ‘private’ care in the UK is a bit misleading. The problem is, because of the NHS & social services, there’s really no ‘outside’. Almost everyone you deal with in the management roles has come at some point through the state system.
    The top end, where the residents are self funding & it’s very costly are good. But then they are genuinely operating in a market where their customers can go elsewhere. Generally they’ll be relatives around to ensure residents are well treated & to get them moved if they’re not.
    Now Mum was put in a home on a ‘place of safety’ order when my father got carted off to hospital & she was adjudged unfit to remain on her own. So it was what the social services decided. Actually, apart from being rather crowded with not much in the way of facilities, it was quite good. In fact she ended up staying there as self funding. Mainly because she was so happy to be away from my father & with normal people. But even with a good place you could see the incipient problem.
    Everyone in the care sector in the supervisory roles have come from the public sector. Everyone; care, social services, managers, medical, nursing are a product of the NHS or other parts of the system. Mostly they know each other. So you can see how the failings in NHS hospitals can be exactly the same in the private care industry, It can be the same culture. Possibly worse, because it’s self selecting those out of the system most keen to profit from state money being slung in the direction of private care. And again, those charged with supervising it are all part of the same clique. It’s so vulnerable to being run for the benefit of those operating it, rather than its charges. And it looks like it often is. But those are exactly the poor sufferers who won’t be able to exercise market choice, Either because they don’t have relatives to assist, Their relatives not stroppy bastards like me who’ll kick ass. Or they don’t have the financial leverage to make choices, anyway.

  12. leftists like you have … cheered the diversion of funds which might be spent on medical care to the bureaucracy…

    NHS admin costs are quite low by international standards. They used to be very low, but they’ve gone up a lot with the introduction of various market mechanisms – you need a lot of admin to track and assign costs.

    Overall, this may or may not be worthwhile. But the costs are not the fault of leftists.

    There’s also been an increase in the gathering of statistics and the ticking of boxes. Some of it a good thing, but not obviously a leftist notion.

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