Thousands Die of Hunger and Thirst in Hospitals

Okay .. what gives? Are hospital workers stretched too thin? Is it a matter of 'you get what you pay for'? Is it just human error by people who are in the health care business but who really don't care and shouldn't be there? Is it that people are doing the best they can but their best isn't good enough? I'm finding info on this for Britain and Australia. (I'm sure that there must be other places where this happens as well)

Patients Starving To Death in British Hospitals

At least 1,165 people starved to death while they were patients in Britain's National Health Service hospitals over the past four years.

Critics charge that nurses are too busy to properly feed their patients and often place food and drink out of reach, reports the Daily Mail.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics also reveal that for every patient who died from malnutrition, four more died from dehydration, according to the newspaper

Also from that source - In 2011 another 5,558 people were discharged from the hospital suffering from malnutrition.

reply to post by FlyersFan


I have never heard of this happening...until now. Needless to say...this news is very disturbing. A hospital is a place where a person is to be taken very good care of; and the fact that people are starving and malnutrition is going on...well...those hospital's and staff should be legally held accountable and have to pay for their crimes against humanity.

I live in Seattle...and no one goes hungry in the hospitals here; people are fed on a regular basis.

Where in the hell are these patient's friends and families? Certainly if these people had visitors, they would say something or sneak some sustainence.

Originally posted by Siberbat
Where in the hell are these patient's friends and families?

Not everyone has family who will check in on them.
And a lot of people trust health care establishments to actually provide care.
You'd think that food and water would come under care.

reply to post by FlyersFan


Okay. I guess I'll be "that" guy.

(Caveat first. My uncle died last year because of kidney failure. He was told by Britain's NHS that he was too old to be put on a transplant list.
So I've a personal issue with this.)

This is what the American healthcare system will be once Obamacare comes to the fore. Underpaid, understaffed floor nurses, poor conditions, negligent medical staff, overworked, too busy to tend to the care of patients because bean-counters are determining care.

it's shameful. i'd be worried if i had to go into hospital, for any reason, at the moment. if MRSA doesn't get you first, bureaucracy, mis-and-over-management, health and safety overkill (the irony), meddling central government dictums or plain modern stupidity will.

Obviously Obamacare's fault. Even if it's in Britian. /sarcasm

oh, I see someone actually had already brought up Obamacare. Do you have any evidence that Obamacare will do these things?

www.goodshepherdhospice.com...reply to post by FlyersFan

IV Hydration and Tube Feedings

Hydration is often not helpful during the last stages of life, and may actually cause more discomfort than it relieves so these decisions are always carefully discussed with the patient/and or family

Having recently faced this issue with both of my parents, I feel that I can contribute just a bit. Here in the U.S. when a patient is determined to be at the end of life, terminal either because of illness or age, they are often referred for Hospice care. What Hospice offers can be a genuine benefit for the patient and the family, but some of their information appears quite harsh. They recommend little to no water near the end, just if the patient requests it, and no food. They refer to the fact that the patient's body is already shutting down and giving these things can cause unnecessary discomfort and pain.

This is a very bitter pill for families to swallow, when we are taught all our lives to nurture and nourish those who are dear to us. It feels like you are contributing to their passing. Physically I understand the logic, but emotionally it was horrible.

This could be a contributing factor to the numbers in the OP. However, if any part of those numbers is due to neglect, then there should be repercussions.

I do know also that many nursing homes/facilities fall well below the mark for resident care. People are often left unattended for long periods of time, and trays that are delivered are taken without care of whether they were eaten or not. That did not happen with my mother. In my many unannounced visits at various times, they were monitoring what she ate and drank, and taking her back and forth to the dining room when she was able.

I think it all has to do with the facilities and the quality of employees, as well as the work loads levied on them.

We should all care about this, because one day we could be the ones on the receiving end.

BT

Originally posted by Ghost375
Obviously Obamacare's fault. Even if it's in Britian. /sarcasm

oh, I see someone actually had already brought up Obamacare. Do you have any evidence that Obamacare will do these things?

Yes. If you read the law, it describes similar attributes that will include limits on care, limits on staffing.




Keep drinking the kool-aide. TALK to people that have survived the system before making aggrandizing remarks!

How many times does the nurse have to return and find a tray full of food still sitting there to realize the patient isn't eating it? They must be pretty busy not to notice something that obvious.

reply to post by BearTruth

Sorry to hear about your situation. I'm sure that was difficult. From what I read, this is going on in hospitals. I understand that nursing homes and hospices have end of life situations that mean no food or water. But this seems to be hospitals ....

You know things are bad when people are worried about going into hospital and catching a superbug.

But when patients are dying in hospital from lack of food and or water things are really bad and I think it happens alot more than we are told.

On Feb 11th this year my son was taken to hospital after having a convulsion, they kept him in overnight to monitor him and I stayed with him and I didn't sleep a wink, I was terrified of catching something lethal.

So not only do people have to be worried about catching something bad in a hospital, they have to be worried about not being fed and given water, its disgusting.

Also a few years ago my grandad had a bad accident when his leg got trapped in a bus door (he could of lost his leg), when he got to hospital they cut his trousers off which were soaked in blood.

They put the blood soaked trousers in his bedside cabinet and left them there. My mum discovered them when she came to visit. She had a right go at the staff and told them the trousers should have been incinerated.

reply to post by korath


Staff change every 8 to 12 hours generally, Dietary delivers the tray for a meal, a nurse, aide or dietary will pick up the tray afterwards. In the optimal setting, they mark off what the patient ate or didn't eat. With staff turnover, increased patient load, and perhaps a negligent employee the possibility for error or omission multiplies.

The truth is, if a patient dies solely from dehydration or malnutrition, that is neglect. But in most case I would presume there was an underlying condition that got them there in the first place.

Neglect is neglect, and should be punished. The problem is, as stated in another post above, the patient's often have no one to advocate for them, and when they reach a certain point of illness, they give up.

There is no excuse for neglect.

BT

My wife was in hospital many years ago and I had to summon a nurse or doctor to help her and no one came. She was gasping for breath and still no help. I ended up shouting and swearing at them reading newspapers and had to roar at the top of my voice at them.
Security were called and I was banned feom entering said hospital! Banned for trying to save my wife! Where is the justice in that?
Long story short, a few years later the same hospital was closed and demolished for lack of hygiene medical staff and patient care!

Its called the Liverpool Care Pathway (LCP), endorsed by government, rolled out nationwide, and requires that hospitals activly withold food and water from patients they arbitarily deem not to be worth saving. Of course they dress it up and spin it nicer than that, but thats the cold harsh truth of it, as I can figure out.

en.wikipedia.org...

It sickens me too.

Do you think things just suddenly got this bad? No. People have been trying to speak out about what is happening for years, the problem? Either the news doesn't report it, or people are that apathetic they simply glance over the reports in their local papers. Ignorance. And lets be clear this is a local issue. You cant change big government, certainly not by complaining to big government. What has happened at Stafford Hospital is an abomination and symptomatic with what is wrong with the NHS. People more concerned about keeping their jobs that doing their jobs. You would think one had something to do with the other but no. And it is not the fault of the NHS, but those running it.

The Bean Counters.

Let me tell you a personal story.

I had an accident at work. The end result was a snapped cruciate ligament. No lateral stability in my right knee. Waiting time, 3 months. Not bad for free. The three months drew to an end and I got my appointment. Not bad so far. So I arrived on the day, 7am, nil by mouth. We were told that there were no beds available and we were directed to the "staff room" until a bed was available (within the hour).

The patient exiting the ward had "psychological Issues" and we were informed that transport was enroute. Fair enough I thought. The hours ticked by.

Staff came on shift and off shift, leaving there belonging in an unlocked locker. Handbags, coats ect. Under my seat, and all around the room, were patients confidential files, their medical records. Everyone who was booked in the day before, on the day and the next day. I was astounded. I counted 3 different violations, and I'm a layman, Human Rights, Data Protection, Common Law. Unbelievable.

When asked about the presence of the files I was informed "we do not have a filing cabinet to put them in." After 6 and a half hours I still had no bed and problem child still had no transport (it was snowing ffs roll eyes ect), and you can only read so many 80 year old's records before they all start sounding the same, so I said to the person occupying the nurses station "Im Off, and I shall be making a complaint" and made it pretty clear that I was utterly disgusted by the fact they took such disregard for other peoples private information, including my own.

When I got home I rang the surgeons secretary and gave them a piece of my mind too. I stated that it was completely unacceptable that patients confidentiality was of such low priority. I requested the first available appointment (we live less than a mile away and I was willing to accept cancellations, short notice, as I was off work due to this and couldn't afford to be). I was not about to be drop kicked to the back of the waiting list due to their incompetence.

On the 2nd day (less than 3 weeks), the day I had my surgery, I got there at 7am, nill by mouth. The staff room, empty. The files, on a trolley and me, I had a bed waiting.

I required 2 arthroscopics to determine the extent of the damage and full reconstructive surgery taking part of my hamstring to reconstruct the ligament in my knee.

When I had been taken down to the waiting ward for surgery, the surgeon came and thanked me. Why did he thank me? Because I put up a stink. I spelt it out for them in no uncertain terms how incompetent I thought they were. Not the nurses, not the surgeon, not the hospital. THE SYSTEM. And he agreed, he said so himself..Even he, a surgeon, a talented man indeed, cannot do squat to change things from the inside.

The vast majority of people in the NHS, they want to do a good job, they want to care for you. It's further up the food chain where the rot sets in. And they are the ones who literally get away with murder while blaming their subordinates in the process.

Don't expect someone else to bring change to you. It is up to you (and your community) to change things.

reply to post by korath


While my sister was working in the hospital,she had to document EVERYTHING. This includes what they ate and how much,how much urine was passed what if any stool and its condition,etc.Therefore I find this to be horrible that the nurses at that hospital weren't doing they're jobs.

I live in the UK and this has been a major story for over a year. There's one particular hospital where most of the deaths occurred. It's a mixture of just horrible neglect by the nurses and lack of training. If you Google Staffordshire Hospital, it has the highest mortality rate in the country. People were going in with minor illnesses and dying. It's horrible that it's been allowed to go on as long as it has. They are now deciding whether to close it, instead of giving staff the training they need and getting rid of the staff who have no social skills or compassion when it comes to nursing. Either way, something needs doing. There used to be care in the nursing system, now it's more like a cattle market. I have on the odd occasion still come across a doctor or a nurse who you can tell do it because they care, but it's far and few between now.

I wonder how many of those deaths were due to feeding tubes and such being removed from people who are brain dead and stuff like that. I think technically that is recorded as dying of malnutrition or dehydration.

I had an aunt who went into a coma after a drug OD and became brain dead. That's how she kicked off.

Also, how many here have ever worked in an ER? I did one shift in an ER in La Jolla, CA. Which is about as peaches and cream as gets. Those folks are worked to the bone. I tell you what, Doctors and nurses don't get the credit they deserve anymore. Most of those people are fricken saints. I wouldn't put up with 1/4 of the crap they have to every day, and I've been in the Marine Corps for over 12 yrs now. I put up with ridiculous amounts of crap.

The answer is that the Tories are in power and there's a concerted effort to demonise the NHS and bring in private healthcare. The same way when the tories and their buddies get into power foxes start crawling out of the woodwork and eating children

I'd propose this is made-up garbage by the Daily Mail. Another junk "statistic" to go along with the rest of their imaginary statistics.

I've had nothing but good experiences with NHS hospitals, and I've been in them more often than I'd like the last couple of years.

The real problem the NHS faces is that right-wing extremists are actively tearing it apart. They're doing their best to weaken and collapse the system, and the more they do to break it, they more they say "Look, we told you, it's not fit for purpose"

This is one of the biggest conspiracies in Britain right now. They're actively trying to destroy the NHS. What's funny is the tories who whinge about the NHS, they're the ones who vote for the tory politicians who are f######g it up in the first place. You couldn't write it.