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18 June 2008

Achieving dignity in care means ensuring quality of care

Help the Aged has today responded to news of plans for nursing quality to be measured for compassion of care. The charity has highlighted the link between quality of care provision and the dignity of patients. 

Charlotte Potter, Senior Policy Officer at Help the Aged, said:

'Help the Aged has long campaigned on the need to measure quality of care in relation to dignity. Patients, in particular older people, cite dignity as a primary area of concern for them when accessing healthcare.

'The NHS needs to be held to account when it puts the dignity of its users at risk. Incidents of older people left in pain, ignored, or distressed by a lack of privacy in hospitals emerge with such frequency they cannot be dismissed as isolated cases.

'Help the Aged therefore welcomes the Secretary of State's recognition of the need to measure quality of nursing care and not just numbers of people treated and discharged. 

'However nurses are only one piece of the puzzle. Ensuring the dignity of patients will depend on many other factors including the behaviour of all staff, from doctors to porters, and the ward environment. If the Government is serious about tackling the issue of dignity in care, they must take all these factors into account.'

Notes for Editors:

Right care, Right deal’ is the new national campaign launched to build public awareness and support for the need for brave and innovative solutions for the social care system. With the Government indicating that social care is an urgent political priority, and in advance of the expected green paper later in 2008, the campaign combines three of the UK’s largest charities working with and for older people and their families and carers, and will urge the government to renew its vision for the future of social care in England. Visit www.rightcare.org.uk

Help the Aged is the charity fighting to free disadvantaged older people in the UK and overseas from poverty, isolation, neglect and ageism. It campaigns to raise public awareness of the issues affecting older people and to bring about policy change. The Charity delivers a range of services: information and advice, home support and community living, including international development work. These are supported by its paid-for services and fundraising activities - which aim to increase funding in the future to respond to the growing unmet needs of disadvantaged older people. Help the Aged also funds vital research into the health issues and experiences of older people to improve the quality of later life.

Help the Aged urgently needs donations and support to help it in the increasingly challenging fight to free disadvantaged older people from poverty, isolation and neglect. Visit www.helptheaged.org.uk or call 0207 239 1982.