Dementia care in our hospitals

By Toby Friedner
BBC Three Counties

Roger and Leonie Sewell

Just 5% of NHS hospitals give staff formal training to care for patients with dementia.

It means that sometimes those patients are not treated as well as they could be.

Roger Sewell's wife Leonie has severe dementia and had a bad experience in Bedford Hospital in May, 2010.

In Roger's case most staff did not know how to meet his wife's needs properly. As a result, he believes she suffered unnecessarily.

"She went into hospital continent and, before the fall, fully mobile. She came out completely incontinent because she was just left in the bed and completely immobile."

Roger said staff he came into contact with were well meaning but lacked the necessary skills.

"I think the people themselves were lovely to talk to and would have been willing but were just unaware.

"It's this general lack of knowledge and training within the hospital system of the needs for dementia patients."

Hospital Response

In a statement Director of Nursing and Patient Services at Bedford Hospital, Eiri Jones, said:

"The need to improve hospital care for patients with dementia has been recognised nationally, and I welcome this as it addresses the needs of the most vulnerable patients.

"Locally, work is already underway to improve the care we provide and we are working in partnership with all organisations and carers who deliver services to patients with dementia.

"To support this work, we have an ongoing programme of training and awareness raising for hospital staff in relation to the specific needs of patients with dementia who become acutely ill.

"As with the work we are doing for clients with a learning disability and other vulnerable people who become acutely ill, we are also keen to work further with the relatives and carers of patients with dementia, so that we can continuously improve the care we provide.

"Whilst I cannot publicly discuss an individual case, we always welcome the opportunity to discuss any concerns relatives or carers may have about patient care directly with them."

Key findings from the report 95% of hospitals do not have mandatory training in dementia awareness for all staff Just 19% of hospitals had a system to ensure ward staff were aware that a person had dementia and how it affected them, and that necessary information was imparted to other staff with whom the person came into contact Only 30% of hospitals have formal system for gathering pertinent personal information to caring for person with dementia Just 8% of hospital executive boards regularly review readmission data for patients with dementia 20% of hospital executive boards regularly review information collected on delayed transfers of people with dementia 70% of hospitals do not have a review process for discharge procedures for people with dementia

Dementia Report

750,000 people in the UK have dementia and up to one in four hospital beds are occupied by an older person who has it.

On Thursday 16th December 2010, the Interim Report from the first annual National Audit of Dementia - a clinical audit commissioned by the Healthcare Quality Improvement Partnership is published.

It examines the care provided by 206 hospitals across England and Wales between 1 September 2009 and 28 February 2010.

It concludes that more needs to be done by hospital trusts to ensure that patients with dementia are cared for properly and that staff have the right training to do so.

Lister Hospital

For the last three years the Lister Hospital in Stevenage has run a training programme for staff in dementia care.

They now have 230 dementia champions across the trust and a special bit of kit called a Tiptree Box, which contains everyday objects specifically designed to help dementia patients.

Contents of a Tiptree Box

Developed by two nurses from Essex in 2006 the box is used as a distraction therapy used to stimulate patients and aid memory. It contains things like keys, books, a scarf, postcards and other items.

"It means that one nurse can sit here with the patient and we can get on and nurse the other twenty seven patients", says Nola March, Senior Ward Sister at the hospital.

And for the patients and their relatives an innovative way to interact with each other. Mark Harris's mum Peggy is a patient with dementia at the Lister Hospital. He says it's a worthwhile initiative.

"It's something I haven't come across before but I think it's quite a useful thing because any sort of dialogue you can inspire with older people, dementia or not, is good because it actually keeps the brain going."

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