The office of National statistics has recently released information which has shown that the number of deaths from malnutrition or dehydration was around 25 every week in 2010. The study showed that over 800 people were dehydrated when they died and around 300 were suffering from malnutrition. Despite these additional medical complications they were not the cause of death in these people.
Some conditions mean that patients can be thirsty and hungry but feeding can be difficult due to medical complications. A disease which can prevent you from feeding when you are hungry is Alzheimers. Campaigners are working to make sure that no one dies because of hunger or dehydration.
The Patients Association chief executive is Katherine Murphy who has said, “The NHS needs to improve its care of people who could be suffering from dehydration or malnutrition. It is entirely possible that these deaths are avoidable if patient care is increased. Monitoring of patients who are vulnerable to these conditions needs to be made systematic and hospital boards need to accept responsibility for this and prevented from happening in the future.”
The figures are not just for the NHS but also privately run hospitals and interestingly, in the last decade, the number of deaths associated with starvation or dehydration has increased. In 2000 nearly 900 people died when suffering from dehydration or malnutrition, although this was not the primary cause of death. 10 years later the figures have increased and nearly 1300 people have dehydration or starvation as a contributory factor in death.
A spokesperson from the Department of Health has stated, “Most of the people who are suffering from these conditions have a severe underlying condition, such as cancer, and this makes them much more susceptible to these kind of nutrition problems. That said, patients have a right to expect that they will be helped to drink and eat enough to ensure they are comfortable no matter what.”
The Prime Minister has recently said that he wants to see the number of rounds nurses are doing in hospitals increased, so that the standard of care for patients improves. David Cameron commented, “There should be more rounds conducted by nurses making sure that each patient is hydrated, fed and comfortable. Everyone being treated by our health service deserves respect and dignity.”
He made his comments after a report by Care Quality Commission which stated that, in general, nursing standards in the NHS were not compassionate enough. A report by the organisation last year found that when visiting 100 hospitals, patients were only being checked to make sure they had enough food and water in 50 percent of cases.
In some cases doctors had to go to extreme lengths to make sure that their patients were getting enough water from nurses, some even went so far as writing it up as a prescription. There are also concerns that some patients who might struggle to feed themselves, such as the elderly, are not being given the assistance they need to make sure that they are eating well.
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