Nil Ny Mouth

The Telegraph has highlighted another disturbing example of poor standards of care in the NHS and I wonder what happens to other patients whose families are not so well connected or able to complain effectively about their treatment.

As I recall the hospital concerned did not uphold various complaints about her husband's care and so I will be interested to hear what comes of the latest investigation.  

But the key point is that it should be impossible for a patient and their family to be treated in this way because such a decision should never be taken without consulting the patients and their family, as happened in the case of my own mother for example. 

Jeremy Bowen's father left without food and water in hospital

Veteran BBC journalist says there are 'big question marks' over hospital's care after his 84-year-old father is erroneously given 'nil by mouth'

Jeremy Bowen has said there are some "big question marks" over his fathers care at University Hospital of Wales Photo: Andrew Crowley


By Emily Gosden, and Graeme Paton - The Telegraph

Jeremy Bowen, the veteran BBC journalist, has spoken of his shock after discovering his father had been mistakenly left without food and water while in hospital receiving treatment for a chest infection.

Bowen said his father Gareth, 84, who has dementia and is bedridden, had been taken in to University Hospital of Wales with suspected pneumonia after experiencing breathing difficulties overnight Thursday to Friday.

Only when his brother visited on Saturday afternoon and found his father complaining of thirst did the family discover staff had apparently been erroneously told to give him ‘nil my mouth’.

Cardiff and Vale University Health Board on Sunday said it had begun an investigation into “the very serious issue” after the journalist, who is the BBC’s Middle East Editor, explained on Twitter what had happened.

University Hospital of Wales has already come in for criticism over its care of elderly patients after Ann Clwyd, the Labour MP, complained about the treatment received by her husband before his death.

Bowen the Telegraph: “My brother went in there and my father was complaining about being very thirsty. He likes Ribena and [my brother] saw the Ribena bottle hadn’t even been opened. My brother spoke to a nurse who said ‘I don’t know what’s going on there’ and wasn’t very helpful.

“Then he spoke to the guy who brought round the meals, who told him ‘no we’re not giving him food because we’ve been told not to – he’s nil by mouth'. That’s what you do for people just before operations – which he wasn’t having.

“I don’t know the full facts except it seems pretty clear he didn’t have food or drink as far as we know. They discovered all this on Saturday and he was admitted Thursday-Friday overnight, so by then it would have been 24 hours or so.”

“Apparently he was wearing the same clothes he had been wearing when he was admitted. There’s some big question marks about his care there,” he said.

“When my siblings found out about they arranged for him to be discharged back to his care home.”

He said his father, a retired journalist, was now back in his care home and had “perked up a bit now he is having some food and drink”.

Bowen said he voiced his anger on Twitter because he knew “there has been some concern about the hospital”.

He said: “I’m a big believer in the NHS, big supporter of the NHS and user of the NHS. It’s very disappointing and saddening and frightening when things don’t go right.”

Mr Bowen said he had previously had to complain about his father’s treatment after he broke his hip and had problems over his admission and a delay before his operation.

The journalist's comments come amid continuing concerns over the neglect of elderly patients in hospitals and care homes in the wake of the Mid Staffordshire scandal.

An inquiry into failure at Mid Staffs found that patients were left lying in their own excrement and had to drink water from vases in some of the worst examples of neglect ever seen in the NHS.

Hundreds of patients are believed to have died needlessly.

But a report late last year by the Care Quality Commission said hospitals had made “no improvement” in monitoring the quality of care or ensuring that patients were safe or treated with dignity.

Some 18 per cent of hospitals were failing to meet basic standards on nutrition and dignity, with patients left without help to eat, drink or go to the lavatory. Some patients were left calling for help because call bells were not answered or out of reach.

Ministers have now unveiled plans for a new law covering “wilful or reckless neglect” in which all NHS could face jail if they are found guilty of the most extreme types of poor care.

Ms Clwyd, the Labour MP, claimed her husband Owen had died like a “battery hen” in 2012, describing the “contempt” of nurses.

An investigation by the NHS into her husband’s treatment concluded in April that there was “insufficient evidence” of poor care – even though it conceded that he died from hospital-induced pneumonia after spending 27 hours in A&E.