NHS care for the elderly: 'In our opinion, she starved to death'

Julie Jones says her 84-year-old mother, who went to hospital for an operation on a fractured hip, starved to death there. Jean Dawson was admitted to Furness hospital in February last year. On her death she weighed just four-and-a-half stones – two stones less than when she was admitted. Dawson had dementia, but on admission the doctors said there was no reason why she should not make a full recovery within a couple of weeks from the surgery. Although her dementia meant the operation had been carried out without Dawson's explicit consent, the hospital decided it could not make her eat or be washed without her agreement. "It was horrendous," said Jones. "In our opinion, she starved to death. The hospital didn't have anything in place for dealing with the elderly or dementia patients and no system of knowing what they had eaten." Dawson was left on a general ward. "She didn't see anybody at all who was a specialist in elderly care," said Jones, herself a nurse. "We asked whether she could be transferred to a ward for elderly care, but they said they couldn't deal with a fractured femur on an elderly ward." Jones complained to the hospital unofficially and then formally about her mother's care. After several visits to the matron, she said: "I want to discuss my mother's end of life care. She is four-and-a-half stone – that is not compatible with life." It was only then that Jones was told Dawson could be transferred to a hospice – an offer the family accepted. Dawson died in her hospital bed just before the move. She had been in hospital for seven weeks. The cause of death was given as advanced dementia.