MPs accuse care homes of shameful betrayal of our elderly

• Relatives who complain risk their loved ones being evicted

• MPs call for a complete change of culture in health and care services

• They say the Government is failing to provide proper leadership

Care homes were accused of "betrayal" of the elderly last night as it emerged one in five is still failing to meet the most basic standards of privacy and dignity.

A committee of MPs and peers said that the National Minimum Standards - introduced more than three years ago - were failing to stop the misery suffered by thousands.

They uncovered evidence of care home residents left lying in soiled clothes, suffering malnutrition and being abused by staff.

The joint committee on human rights concluded the treatment was "shameful" and called for a "complete change of culture" in health and care services.

Campaigners said it was a damning indictment of Labour's decade in power, which has been littered with promises of improvements.

The care standards introduced by Ministers in 2003 cover the most basic human needs, such as treating sores, giving baths, helping residents to use the toilet and providing care and comfort to the dying.

They are supposed to ensure old people are "treated with respect, that their dignity is preserved at all times, and that their right to privacy is always observed".

But 21 per cent of care homes are still failing to meet the minimum standard, the committee found.

They are accused of allowing the elderly to suffer:

Malnutrition and dehydration;

Abuse and rough treatment;

Lack of privacy in mixed sex wards;

Neglect, carelessness and poor hygiene;

Inappropriate medication and use of physical restraint;

Bullying, patronising, and infantilising attitudes;

Eviction for making complaints.

The report said: "In our view, elder abuse is a serious and severe human rights abuse which is perpetrated on vulnerable older people who often depend on their abusers to provide them with care.

"Not only is it a betrayal of trust, it would also, in certain circumstances, amount to a criminal offence."

Other evidence included the fact that 40 per cent of people with dementia in care homes are being prescribed neuroleptic, or sedative, drugs.

They are not licensed for use in dementia care but have become a convenient staple as part of routine treatment, despite known evidence on the risks which such "treatments" pose to quality of life and the increased risk of death.

The report said that they are "in many cases, being used simply as a tool for the easier management of residents".

Witnesses said that relatives who complained faced the risk of their loved one being evicted, in one case for simply saying the bed was often not made.

The Health Service was also criticised for the hasty discharge from hospital of some patients, in order to meet Whitehall targets on reducing "bed blocking".

One man was told he must visit care homes to find a bed for his father on the same day he was due to bury his mother - a move described as "grotesquely inhuman".

The committee criticised the Department of Health and other Government departments for failing to "provide proper leadership" and guidance about the way the controversial Human Rights Act could be used to protect the elderly, rather than criminals.

Because of the lack of "political leadership" from health ministers, voluntary groups faced an "uphill struggle" to improve patients' rights.

The group also found evidence of "historic and embedded ageism" within healthcare services.

Tory health spokesman Stephen O'Brien said: "For how long can this Government continue to neglect the social care sector and with it some of the most vulnerable people in our society?"

Gordon Lishman, of Age Concern, said: "This report sadly comes as little surprise. We hear regularly from older people and their carers about poor treatment in hospitals or care homes."

The Healthcare Commission, the Government's independent watchdog, said it was clear "more work needs to be done".

The Daily Mail's Dignity for the Elderly campaign has highlighted the way the elderly are made to pay high bills while their needs and interests are sidelined in the system meant to care for them.

Health minister Ivan Lewis said: "The Government regards abuse of vulnerable and older people as unacceptable in all its forms and is determined to root it out."

He added the Government intended to extend the Human Rights Act to cover privately-run care homes.

'Staff have lost sight of the human aspect of caring'

These are extracts from evidence given to the committee:

"A lady claimed there was a trail of urine from her mother's bed to the lavatory, and she complained about that sort of behaviour. "To me, that is not an abuse of the Human Rights Act, that should never have happened under any circumstances whether we have the Human Rights Act or not." - Witness

"She wanted to go to the toilet, so she rang the buzzer, but the staff member did not come for half an hour by which time it was too late and the care worker left her in wet nightclothes, took the buzzer from her and threw it across the room." - Witness

"We have reached the stage where we value care far less than we value cure." - NHS Confederation

"I went to visit my husband on the first day and when I went in he was almost in tears. He said, 'Please, please go and get a bottle, I am nearly wetting myself'.

"I rushed out and got a bottle and I said to him, 'Well why didn't you just ring for the nurse?', in my innocence. He said, 'I have, for an hour and a half I've been asking for a bottle'. There was no dignity." - Elderly witness

"A relative complained once simply that her mother's bed was very rarely made and her mother faced eviction as a result of that." - Witness

"I think that healthcare staff have become so required to focus on technology and targets that they have lost sight of the humanistic aspects of caring." - Royal College of Nursing

"She grew very thin and it was obvious to visitors that, although she has always had an excellent appetite, she found great physical difficulty in feeding herself and using a cup. "Visitors would have been only too willing to help her but they were discouraged from staying during meal times. She appeared to be slowly starving to death." - Witness