Tuesday, 5 January 2010

Patients 'being force-fed with tubes in wards and care homes'

Patients are being effectively force-fed amid widespread poor practice in hospitals and care homes, according to a report. Some homes are even turning people away unless they have a nutrition tube fitted because staff do not have time to feed them.

More than 39,000 people in Britain who have swallowing difficulties are given food and drink "artificially" at home or in hospital. They include cancer sufferers, accident victims with head injuries and people who are dying. Increasingly, carers are using feeding tubes on dementia patients, despite a lack of evidence that this increases survival rates.

The study was carried out by a working party set up by the Royal College of Physicians and the British Society of Gastroenterology...
Source: The Evening Standard

2 comments:

JuliaM said...

That makes a nice contrast with the last post, doesn't it?

And by 'nice', I mean horrific...

Linda said...

I've said it before someone has taken the "care" out of the caring professions. I shudder whenever I see the word!