Forty-three hospital patients starved to death last year and 111 died of thirst while being treated on wards, new figures disclose today.
The death toll was disclosed by the Government amid mounting concern over the dignity of patients on NHS wards.
They will also fuel concerns about care homes, as it was disclosed that eight people starved to death and 21 people died of thirst while in care.
Last night there were warnings that they must prompt action by the NHS and care home regulators to prevent further deaths among patients.
The Office for National Statistics figures also showed that:
* as well as 43 people who starved to death, 287 people were recorded by doctors as being malnourished when they died in hospitals;
* there were 558 cases where doctors recorded that a patient had died in a state of severe dehydration in hospitals;
* 78 hospital and 39 care home patients were killed by bedsores, while a further 650 people who died had their presence noted on their death certificates;
* 21,696 were recorded as suffering from septicemia when they died, a condition which experts say is most often associated with infected wounds.
The records, from the Office for National Statistics, follow a series of scandals of care of the elderly, with doctors forced to prescribe patients with drinking water or put them on drips to make sure they do not become severely dehydrated .
OUR CITIZENS ARE LEFT TO DIE, MISERABLY, WHILST CAMERON SENDS OUR MONEY OVERSEAS, EVEN TO WEALTHIER COUNTRIES!
YOU VOTE CONLIBLAB – YOU ENCOURAGE THIS!
It’s AMAZING the MULTIPLE options for the PRAGMATIC APPLICATION of the average FLASH LIGHT in all it’s VARYING SHAPES AND SIZES… Heeeeeere Mr conliblab…. got somethin’ for ya!! (Where on earth did Uncle Sam come in though? Did we steal HIM from your boys TOO!?!)
Every time you open a Newspaper you can read an account of a Senior Citizen being maltreated or degraded.These are the people who in many cases experienced the worst times of WW11 ,Korea,Malaya ,Cyprus,N.I. etc.not to mention service to their community at home i.e.Police,Ambulance service ,Fire Service etc.I read an account this week of a retired Police Officer now 83 living on scraps of mouldy meat and no one even his own family giving a S….In most cases these people are to proud to ask for help of any sort,as for hand outs they would rather die,and in many cases do because that goes against the way they were brought up.Not like the free loading Scumbags yoy and I have to support through our taxes.At least we have got that one eyed rag head out of the country and I trust his relatives will swiftly follow.
Totally agree.
“Not like the free loading Scumbags yoy and I have to support through our taxes.” And you wonder why they are afraid to ask?