When you read how an elderly lady Jean Dawson died you have to pinch youself. Pinchyourself to try to realise that UK is one of the most civilised countries of the world.
Jean Dawson's daughter, an NHS nurse reveals how her mother spent her last days in a NHS hospital. She had to lay in bed with soiled sheets and blankets, begging nursing staff for water. People in their final years of their lives are, like Mrs Dawson, too often not even given food and water.
If this happened to an animal there would be an uproar, people demanding a stop to this terrible behaviour. But sadly it was not an animal it was an elderly lady leaving this world without any dignity, respect or care.
The blame cannot be laid in any one direction. Sometimes it is nurses at fault, sometimes it's a failure of the hospitals commitment to elderly people. It does not matter at this moment who is to blame, it simply just should not be happening.
Nobody should spend their final days like this. It makes you wonder about the phrase, "Slow boat to China," and how many people are on that boat. These people are not freeloaders, they have paid for this service all their working lives. As an English person I am ashamed of what is going on in our woderful NHS hospitals.
Ref Mark Austin, The Daily Mirror.