Care issues need addressing

Published: 10:14 AM October 18, 2007

Updated: 12:42 AM February 23, 2021

I WOULD like to congratulate Ms D Bartlett for standing up for her profession in her reply to comments I made in an article on September 20 – plea to support hospital s future. Ms Bartlett found my comments offensive. Well Ms Bartlett, imagine how elderl

I WOULD like to congratulate Ms D Bartlett for standing up for her profession in her reply to comments I made in an article on September 20 - plea to support hospital's future.

Ms Bartlett found my comments offensive. Well Ms Bartlett, imagine how elderly people feel when they are abused or have their dignity taken from them by so called professional care staff.

I have spent many years as a domiciliary care worker and yes, Ms Bartlett, like you, I have done the training in all those areas you mentioned and while I must bite my own tongue and agree with you that the PCT has some excellent care workers, there are many who are not.

I should also like to make it clear that my comments were aimed at the domiciliary care workers employed by private care companies who would not be adequately trained to cope with the kind of care that would be needed by many if the PCT went ahead and closed wards not only at Ely but Brookfields hospital in Cambridge.

An area of great concern in the training of staff by these private companies is where staff are simply given a video to watch and then issued with a certificate indicating that they are trained in that particular field. Another area of concern if elderly people are forced to receive care at home because of these closures is where carers arrive late, some people would still not be in bed at 11pm and on other days find that they are put to bed while it is still light. Carers are in such a hurry to get to the next client that they rarely have time to chat leaving the client feeling quite lonely.

While many people working in the care sector can be deemed as more than just professional, we have many areas that need to be addressed and this is where you can show just how committed to your profession you are by joining our campaign for Dignity Champions where the challenge is to ensure high-quality care services that respect elderly people's dignity and have a zero tolerance of all forms of abuse.