“In one hospital that I¿ve visited I saw they put suffers with dementia and Alzheimer¿s in a special wing so as to keep better surveillance over them. They also wrapped a wide bright yellow belt around these patients for easy identification and they have posters around the hospital stating that if you should see someone wearing one of these belts to report it immediately to the staff. Unfortunately some patients have still managed to walk out of the hospital.
However, in this age of high tech equipment it wouldn¿t take much to add to these belts a computer chip or a security devise something like stores put in the packages containing DVD¿s and CD¿s, and also in library books, with a sensor and an alarm at the doorway of the hospital wing. Then if a patient should wander past the doorway the alarm would alert someone to the fact, and they could come to their aid and bring them back to their room. If the stores can install these to stop shop lifters from stealing DVD¿s it must be quite cheap and easy to install the equipment.
¿Charlie, Canada.”

“This is a shameful lack of care. I for one am glad that the family and this paper are making a fuss about it . All sorts of patients in a hospital can be vulnerable and confused. Those who think that it just applies to the elderly are mistaken. On all the wards where young and old go for brain surgery and head injury this can and does happen.”

“Jo, exactly what is the point of your comment? Yes, advances in medical science is what is needed to make any progress in treating dementia and Alzheimer's, but as there isn't any significant progress currently where is the harm in praying? It gives comfort to those who are religious, it's not as if it's going to make the dementia sufferer worse.

My Grandfather suffered from severe dementia and I have never seen anything as upsetting as him not recognising his children or babbling nonsense and forgetting all of his truly remarkable life. I agree with the couple in the article, in an ideal world there should be designated wards for alzheimers and dementia sufferers with properly trained staff. Unfortunately this isn't a perfect world and I'm sure the hospital staff did all they could.

What this doesn't change is the fact the majority of people don't understand the disease and a lot of people in hospitals or nursing homes mis-diagnose or feed them anti-psychotic drugs which if anything make them worse. So much more research needs to be done into these diseases.”

“You're wasting your time then.”

“Jo ........ you look in the eyes of a person you love with this disease.... yes, I pray ....”

“Praying won't help, Lucy. Medical science not superstitious hokum is what's required.”

“..... just remember all the early onset dementia/alzheimers suffers...... this disease does not only apply to the 'elderly........ praying my loved one never has to go to any hospital.......”

“I am appauled that some people are looking at this so flippantly. The patient's daughter had raised her concerns about the fact that the hospital wouldn't be able to keep a close eye on her, they had the same thoughts as you guys did but the hospital insisted and re-assured her that she would be looked after appropiately and even moved her right next to the nurses station in order fulfill this. That's the point they are making! Did some of you just choose to read only the bits you wanted?? And at no point have I read that the couple are blaming the hospital or staff in any way. I completely agree there should be more consideration to elderley people who are suffering with something they have no control over. My Dad had Parkinsons and Lewy-Body Dementia and was admitted to BRI after a fall and it was extremely difficult to keep an eye on him. There needs to be more funding available to deal with this. The aging population is only going to get bigger and half of the people on this comment page will be personally affected by these awful conditions, more needs to be done about it this and I am shocked that most of you have missed the point of this article. Nobody is slating hospital staff, they do the very best they can with the funding that they get. But we should be pushing our government for more.”

“I am sorry for all the people that have elderly relatives suffer with this type of incident but what you all have to remember is, it is not through lack of training the staff have nor is it through the negligence of staff on shift at the time. What it is as a result of is the poor funding and resources given to the hospitals. More staff means less incidents yes? Who is the only one who can authorise more staff? The governing body of the NHS thats who. They should suffer the blame and consequences, not the hospital or the staff.

So while this is a most unfortunate incident and my heart goes out to the old lady (i have a gran who suffers with dementia, and i'd be distraught had this happened to her) please remember the bigger picture needs to be taken into account.

The doctor and registrar wanted her kept in for her own benefit not for theirs so obviously had the best intentions at heart.

I would be interested to hear what (within reason) could be done to minimize the chance of this happening again, as short of strapping the patients down to their beds (which is totally against human rights!) what else can be done with the resources these hospitals have to work with?”

“Well done, great idea to sue an already cash-strapped NHS.

People fall over, it happens. Hospitals do not the resources to watch every patient every minute of the day or night.

I hope Mrs Hands swiftly recovers from the cuts and bruises”