The standards of care in nearly one-half of the hospitals and care homes in the UK are deplorably poor --- with these institutions virtually failing to look after their patients, especially the elderly!

According to a damning report by the inspectors of the watchdog Care Quality Commission (CQC), it has been found that nurses at some of the hospitals and care homes in the country are, shockingly, serving up evening meals at
3pm, merely because they deem it more convenient.

In addition, the CQC inspectors have also found that a number of hospitals are facing shortages in the number of nurses on their wards; thereby implying that feeding and washing the patients, particularly the elderly, or even helping move them to prevent bedsores, is becoming increasingly difficult.

Furthermore, the watchdog also found that in some hospitals, nurses simply wheel away the patients for major surgeries, with neither any details of the operation nor any potential risks being properly explained to them by the doctors.

In fact, nurses at times arrive unannounced at the bedsides of the elderly patients and strap blood pressure monitors round their arms without informing them what they are actually doing.

Commenting on the disquieting situation, Age UK charity's director Michelle Mitchell said: `It's not acceptable that NHS hospitals and care homes with nursing are not complying with basic minimum standards required for the wellbeing and welfare of older people"!