ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on news that one-in-five care homes are failing to meet minimum standards of dignity for older people.

Stakeholder response: Help the Aged

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"This influential group of parliamentarians have lifted the lid on the shameful treatment of our older citizens by health and care services.

"Far from tending to the needs of the most vulnerable, too often, these services fail to even respect older people’s most basic human rights.

"The report rightly calls for new legal protections for older people – to make sure they are treated with dignity and respect.

"Surely, the shocking examples highlighted by this report provide all the evidence this government needs to justify urgent action to remedy the situation.

"Help the Aged has long called for a ban on the age discrimination that blights older people’s lives and for action to ensure older people in care have their human rights protected. The government must now act."

Stakeholder response: the NHS Confederation

"The NHS Confederation, which represents over 95 per cent of NHS organisations, welcomes the publication of this report as an important step towards improving the service the NHS delivers for its patients.

"As leaders in healthcare, we recognise that the Human Rights Act can provide a framework for delivering improved services.

"This must be translated into action at all levels to avoid turning judgements about care into a box ticking exercise.

"The principles of care and dignity are central to the design of any system to treat patients.

"There can be no excuse for anyone involved in the NHS – clinician or non-clinician – to treat care as secondary to cure, because the best outcomes for patients require both.

"This is especially the case among the elderly, who will often have long-term, multi-system, conditions. 

"Tackling this requires a joint approach between individual clinicians and managers. All staff must have zero tolerance to poor care and we must ensure that systems are in place to treat all patients with respect and dignity.

"At the NHS Confederation, we are well aware that although a great deal of care is excellent, there is variability within the system.

"Our members are determined to address these issues through the spread of best practice. The seriousness with which managers take this issue is reflected in the extensive quotes the report makes of our members’ work."

Stakeholder response: Age Concern

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"It is scandalous that there is ignorance and even blatant disregard of human rights, seven years after the Human Rights Act first came into force.

"This hard-hitting report gets to the heart of many of the problems older people encounter. The dignity, needs and wants of older people must be put at the centre of their care, and human rights are the perfect vehicle to ensure this and to deliver quality care services. The Department of Health must, as the committee says, show more leadership in putting human rights at the heart of health and social care.

"The report has said that human rights should form part of professional qualifications – we urgently need a positive response to this from bodies such as the Royal College of Nursing and the British Medical Association. Care professionals must be given the support they need, but they also must be shown how human rights should be used to provide care to older people with the dignity they deserve."