Carers speak out over standards
By Dot Kirby
BBC NI health correspondent
Tuesday, 12 August 2008 19:53 UK
Two care assistants have spoken to the BBC about what goes on behind closed doors in some old people's homes in Northern Ireland.
They work for an agency and have been sent to many different homes, but their experiences are very similar.
They claimed old people are left in soiled incontinence pads and infections are easily spread by poor hygiene and shortages of basic equipment.
Both said they have seen care workers and nurses asleep while on duty.
Because they would lose their jobs if their identities were revealed, the BBC is not naming them.
One, 'Ann', told of her experience.
"I have been on a night shift where the staff nurse has perhaps slept for five or six hours."
Both women said some staff they have worked with ignored the need to change used incontinence pads.
The other care worker, 'Joan' told of an experiment she conducted.
"I was in a nursing home and I was putting the man to bed and his pad was very, very wet and I thought that pad hasn't been changed in a long time, so, the pad I put on him in the morning , I put an X on it," she said.
"When I was putting him to bed the next night that pad was the same pad I'd put on in the morning."
The women said they would recommend half a dozen homes they have worked in. But said they were speaking out to try to improve care in the rest.
The body which inspects care homes said that it takes poor care very seriously.
They said in the last year they have carried out nearly 1,000 announced and unannounced inspections, which have resulted in 10 residential and nursing homes being told to improve their care.
Abridged
SOURCE: BBC News
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