Jean Turner: The problem has been growing for years – healthcare assistants don’t have the expertise

THE Royal College of Nursing report highlights a huge problem with care for the elderly in hospitals that should have been highlighted long before now.

It’s a problem that we’ve been experiencing for many years, and a key reason for it is that we are substituting nurses with healthcare assistants, who are not trained in the same way as nurses and don’t have the same level of expertise.

The report clearly demonstrates the needs for more specialist nurses to be employed, as at the moment we’re seeing nurses leaving or retiring and not being replaced, which is leading to a desperate shortage in patient care.

Wards for the elderly need to be properly staffed so that if a patient needs to get up to go the toilet they can get the necessary assistance straight away without the risk of walking on their own and falling over and banging their head, or sustaining some other injury.

There has to be a continuity of care for elderly patients, whether it’s in a care home or hospital ward. If a patient doesn’t receive the attention they need, it’s possible you can have elderly patients developing bed sores and other ailments during their time in hospital. However well-trained a nurse is, if a ward is understaffed then some patients are not going to get the care and attention they need, which often leads to a deterioration in the condition of someone who’s elderly.

The problems of poor patient nurse ratios on wards for the elderly started in the 1990s, but in the last few years we’ve seen things get worse and this is a trend that is very likely to continue if we continue to see nurses who leave or retire not being replaced.

That’s why the nursing profession needs to make a big noise about this, to make sure the government starts to listen.

•  Dr Jean Turner is chief executive of the Scotland Patients’ Association.