Mistreatment of elderly in NHS, and the whistle blowing nurse

4.36.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Wed 10th Jun 2009

You may have heard about Nurse Margaret Haywood, a whistle blowing nurse struck off the Nursing register for secretly filming inhuman & degrading treatment of elderly patients in a NHS hospital, for BBC Panorama. 42000 people have now signed an online petition from the Royal College of Nursing calling for her re-instalment. It has been a catalyst for an outpouring of grief and anger about poor and unequal treatment of the elderly that is all too common in the NHS.

The petition comments document many peoples direct experience of this. Likewise the frustration of staff who fear victimisation if they speak out unacceptable unacceptable standards of care. I hope you will add your voices by all signing the petition, and alerting others, perhaps by putting a link to it on your website.

Everyone should speak out about ageism and human rights of (we) the older people in this country. This is all too often ignored, yet the overwhelming support for the petition indicates a strength of feeling and anger that is out there. The elderly have human rights too. I hope the Liberal Democrats will campaign vigorously about the injustices and mistreatment that Margaret Haywood case has exposed both before and after the next general election.

20 Lib Dem MP's have signed an early day motion supporting Nurse Haywood which is to their credit. Even Ben Bradshaw a junior Health Minister until recently, said the Nursing and Midwifery Council decision was wrong.

Please encourage more people to sign the RCN petition. The petition can be found in our links section.