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Hospitals can learn from specialist dementia care homes

 

18 November 2009

Hospitals should partner with leading dementia care homes to improve NHS medical care for people living with the disease.

Bupa care homes’ medical director, Dr Clive Bowman, says initiatives that are already standard practice in good specialist care homes could help hospitals provide better care for patients who have dementia.

Speaking after an Alzheimer’s Society report criticising NHS care for people with dementia, Dr Bowman called on the regulator to apply the same high standards to the NHS that are used to assess specialist care homes.

Dr Bowman said: “The Care Quality Commission could apply the system it has in place for the care sector in England to help the NHS improve the way hospitals look after people who are living with dementia.”

“Care homes are leading the way with person-centred care and initiatives such as protected mealtimes, life maps, specialist training for carers, and custom-designed buildings.”

“We have also worked with the Alzheimer’s Society on pioneering the introduction of Dementia Champions to provide real care leadership in our specialist dementia homes. It would be great to see hospital leaders visiting care homes to see how they could adopt these ideas for their patients,” added Dr Bowman.

 

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