Social Care News

New system for reporting avoidable pressure sores in care home patients announced

The First Minister, Carwyn Jones, announced yesterday (October 6) that a new public system for the reporting of avoidable pressure sores found in patients in care home would be introduced.

The announcement was made as the Welsh Government responded to recommendations in the report it commissioned, by Dr Margaret Flynn, into alleged neglect of older people in six South Wales care homes.

The care homes were investigated in Gwent Police's Operation Jasmine but the owner of the homes, Dr Prana Das, died before any prosecution could take place. The Welsh Government announced yesterday that, in line with Dr Flynn's recommendations, inquests will now take place into the deaths of patients in the alleged care home neglect scandal. Read more on this - Inquests to be held into deaths of patients in care home 'abuse' scandal.

The Welsh Government said it will introduce a new monitoring and reporting system to record and publish incidents of avoidable pressure damage in care homes and "increase the support available to address failings in the system".

The Flynn Report: recommendations on pressure ulcers

Recommendation two of Dr Margaret Flynn's report deals with the problem of untreated pressure ulcers:

2. that the Welsh Government, in association with Public Health Wales, ensures that:
(i) the significance of deep pressure ulcers is elevated to that of a notifiable condition
(ii) senior clinicians, including Registrars, General Practitioners and Tissue Viability Nurses, assume a lead role in preventing avoidable pressure ulcers and in developing a National Wound Registry, assisted by the Welsh Wound Innovation Centre
(iii) senior clinicians are made responsible for notifying Public Health Wales of deep pressure ulcers and
(iv) where Public Health Wales has been informed of the existence of deep pressure ulcers, a process is identified whereby that information is communicated to the Care and Social Services Inspectorate Wales or the Healthcare Inspectorate Wales and appropriate commissioning authorities as well as to people’s families

The Welsh Government has accepted this recommendation.

Stop Pressure Ulcer Day on November 19

This is a European-wide day to highlight the problem of pressure sores. Find out more about this here.