It is good to sometimes spot results of campaigns in the media. Many newspapers, along with charities for the elderly and Saga, have been creating a merry stink over the last few months over the right of the elderly to expect and receive high standards of care and to be treated with dignity when being cared for outside our own homes. And this week two reports have been published which highlight the problems – many of which are deeply ingrained in the care system - but also in the first case, going some way to change attitudes to caring for older people.

Last week the Nursing and Midwifery Council published a list of guidelines for nurses to follow when caring for the elderly. The Council acted after it commissioned research that suggested that less than half the population think older people are being properly treated and that only 55% of older patients would complain to a nursing manager if they or their relatives were getting poor care.

As well as issuing guidelines for nursing staff, the NMC have also provided a checklist for patients that we can all use either for ourselves or for relatives. The list includes really basic questions that all of us would do well to bear in mind if we are hospitalised. And if the answer is No to such questions as ‘Do I get help when I ask for it ?’ or “Am I being involved when decisions are made about my treatment ?’, then we should not just put up with it, but raise the problem with the staff or with a nursing manager. As a result of these new nursing guidelines, they should be well aware that these are standards of care that we are entitled to expect.

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Less helpful, but very important in ramming home the need to raise the quality of care, a company called Lang and Buissson this week published a report on the quality of care received by dementia patients in this country. Their research shows that less than 60% of dementia patients in care homes currently receive treatment in a proper setting for their affliction. It also discovered that training for professionals looking after dementia patients is ‘fragmented and ad hoc’ and that only a third of care homes provide their staff with any sort of specialist training. After a long and inexplicable delay the Government have finally published a dementia strategy to cope with the growing problem - by 2050 the number of people with dementia is set to double to 1.7m . But whether this strategy will be fully implemented is a moot point indeed in an era where the cost of all public services will have to be slashed to pay for the economic mess we are in right now. But here at least is further evidence that will drive the demand for standards of care to be raised.