Dying patients not afforded the 'dignity that they deserve' - report

Dying hospital patients spend their last days in open-plan wards with little privacy and poor sanitary facilities, according to a report from the Irish Hospice Foundation.

The report of 20 hospitals across the State, including three old unrefurbished hospitals, 14 refurbished hospitals and three new hospitals, found a lack of facilities for private consultations, poor condition of mortuaries and a lack of facilities for relatives.

In most of the hospitals less than 2 per cent of the beds were in private rooms and where private beds were available they were generally given over to infectious patients. The lack of single rooms and the use of multiple beds mean that "patients and relatives are not afforded the dignity that they deserve".

Older hospitals had the worst facilities for dying patients with one of the three surveyed ranking as "poor" and the other two ranking "very poor" in terms of their "functional content" which includes the provision of single rooms, consultation spaces, sanitary facilities for patients and provision of multifaith centres or chapels.

Of the 14 refurbished hospitals, eight ranked as either poor or very poor in terms of their functional content, while the three new facilities achieved either good or very good ratings in this category.

In older hospitals the provision of sanitary facilities was "poor and inadequate both in respect of their location and size, with no ensuite facilities". Even in newer hospitals ensuite facilities tended to be inaccessible to wheelchair users, the report found.

The surveyors found several examples of mixed gender wards which "completely breaches privacy and dignity issues" and poor layout and design in most multiple bed wards. Some of the hospitals surveyed were "dull, drab, dingy and run down".

Several examples of mortuary facilities which resembled A&E cubicles were found. "There were several examples where the mortuaries and postmortem rooms were clearly no longer fit for function, for either viewing, body storage or for postmortems," the report noted.

Chapels or "quiet spaces" were provided in all but one hospital, however a lack of provision for different faiths was noted and all the religious imagery was either Christian or Catholic-based.

Launching the report, Cork-based geriatrician, Cillian Twomey said there was clearly a need for more dignified conditions for the dying.

"This is not about the Irish Hospice Foundation taking a swipe at anybody . . . [this report] is not being used as a means for bashing anybody, it is a means of informing us and providing us with a firm base line and a data base from where we can make progress."