Health watchdog reveals 'shocking' cases of undignified care

Healthwatch Oxfordshire (HWO) and Age UK Oxfordshire are working with local health and social care services to improve standards of dignity in care in Oxfordshire.

The move follows the publication of the Healthwatch report titled ‘Dignity in Care in Oxfordshire’, which was designed to identify if national dignity standards were being met across Oxfordshire care providers.

The report revealed ‘shocking’ cases of service users not being treated with dignity in care.

Rachel Coney, chief executive of Healthwatch Oxfordshire, said: “This report shows that while service users in Oxfordshire are receiving a high level of dignity in their care, there is still much that can be improved about how people are treated when they need health and social care services. “

The report, written alongside Age UK, was based on a survey of 161 service users and 57 care staff completing questionnaires, as well as six focus groups and ten case studies.

Although the report revealed that 86 per cent of service users were treated with dignity, those with communication difficulties and dementia were particularly unhappy with the care they received.

Furthermore, 14 per cent reported that their care providers had not appropriately involved people they had asked to be involved in their care.

Healthwatch also found that people were often reluctant to complain their care and 58 per cent of service users did not always feel properly involved in decision making.

’Workforce pressures’

A service user who suffers from trigeminal neuralgia, a condition which causes severe facial pain, said that while she was normally treated with respect, on one occasion was called ‘unclean’ by a staff member when she was in too much pain to wash.

However, the report also revealed that while health care staff believed strongly in the importance of delivering dignity, they highlighted that ‘workforce pressures’ often made it difficult to deliver high-quality care.

In response to the survey Healthwatch Oxfordshire has made recommendations to improve dignity in care. These include:

-Improving two-way communication between staff, service users and their families.

-Promoting access to support services which facilitate dignified care.

-Including discussions about maintaining dignity for service users in staff training –covering dementia awareness and using plain English instead of jargon.

Dignity has been a longstanding priority and concern across the Age UK movement. The charity has campaigned for greater attention to the problem of breaches of dignity and respect in basic care, as well as the fundamentals of treating service users as human beings and ensuring good communication.

Yet, the charity has also sought to celebrate and commend good practice through its ‘Dignity in Care’ awards.

Diana Roberts, chair of Age UK Oxfordshire, concluded: “We are keen to reassure all those in receipt of care that we will play our part to ensure that that this is not yet another report that sits on the shelf gathering dust.

“It is heartening to learn that the majority of people surveyed felt they were treated with dignity and respect. We now also have clear statements and evidence of areas where improvements can and must be made.”