NHS 'failing older patients'
The NHS has failed to treat some of the most basic needs of older patients, according to a report from the Health Service Ombudsman.
Eighteen per cent of the 9,000 complaints made to the ombudsman based on the NHS was about the care of older people.
In the Care and Compassion report, ten complaints were addressed including one in which one individual was taken from a hospital to a care home and arrived bruised, soaked in urine and wearing another person's clothes.
Michelle Mitchell, charity director at Age UK, said: "It's difficult to imagine us allowing any other group of people to suffer this indignity and neglect, yet we know this is just the tip of the iceberg: appalling treatment of older people in the health service is far too common."
This comes after research conducted by scientists at the University of Gothenburg indicated that hereditary factors do not play as major a role in people's life expectancy as was previously thought.
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