Is it accepted practice for old people to be treated in a low level way?

There is a widespread failure to deliver care that meets the needs of people with dementia in care homes and hospitals, a leading charity has claimed.

Andrew Chidgey, head of policy and campaigns for the Alzheimer's Society, said: "In the past five years there has been a deterioration in the standards of supporting people with dementia in hospitals."

He said the Alzheimer's Society heard of daily incidences where people with dementia were subject to neglect or other forms of abuse.

He added: "There are a catalogue of incidences in which people's needs are not being met."

Also giving evidence was Gary Fitzgerald, chief executive of Action on Elder Abuse, a charity that reports to routinely hear of examples of abuses in hospitals and residential care such as physical assaults, failures to provide adequate food and drink and elderly people being left in soiled or wet incontinent pads.

Mr Fitzgerald said: "We are seeing too many instances where it is accepted practice for old people to be treated in a low level way. What we have got is an environment of acceptance. Old people don't object; they have been conditioned to accept the way they are treated."

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