A study led by the University of London's school of pharmacy has shown that 70% of care homes, incorrectly administer drugs. In some cases the prescribed drugs were not given at all. The consequences of these mistakes could obviously be severe. Newspaper articles that once again lay the blame (within their headlines at least) at the feet of the care home, complain of the situation but does not suggest a remedy.

Norman Lamb, Liberal Democrat health spokesman said

' This shocking number of mistakes cannot be tolerated...The NHS should be made to declare when staff mistakes injure or kill patients so that improvements to standards can be made'.

A case of shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted in my view. A Department of Health spokesman said;

'We will work with the Care Quality Commission (CQC) and others to take forward the important issues raised by this study'

Frankly that does not reassure me. The residents within care homes are our relatives and as such we have a responsibility to improve conditions and procedures - simply pushing this responsibility onto the CQC is not going to get the situation improved.

What can we do about medication that is incorrectly given, or forgotten entirely?

At the Care Show at Olympia last week I saw a company that provided weekly medication - for use within care homes or private homes, in what I can only describe as a large blister pack. It can dispense pills and liquids, is labelled with the drug and when it should be taken. In addition and perhaps most importantly, it has the name of the resident and their photo on it.

I will have a word with the company and see if they would like to tell you more about it.

I was reading The Times last week and they were talking about private schools and the power of parents within the parent teachers association. It occured to me, that as far as I know we don't have an equivalent 'voice' within care homes.

I emailed the Residents and Relatives Association and asked them their view. The bottom line is that according to them, there is no requirement within the existing Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulations that stipulates or even suggests the existance of a 'relative carers association'. They went on to say that they thought the poorer care homes would avoid this avenue at all costs - I am sure they would.

So, if it works for schools, why wouldn't it work for care homes? I think one of the reasons schools get more support from parents is that they meet in the playground and become friends etc. and obviously this doesn't happen in a care home. But if the care home set up an online association for the relatives or residents to participate in, what a voice. Sharing problems, concerns and praise could benefit everybody involved - the residents, relatives and the staff.

If the care home won't or can't establish an online association what is to stop the residents creating their own? I don't see this as a vehicle for being negative about a care home, but as a drive towards improving what is wrong, praising what is going right and sharing information.

I am going to suggest this to some care homes and some relatives to see what the response is - I will let you know.

My first blog.

Welcome to my first blog.

Care and share is about the people we care for; how we care for them and the information we can share to help each other. By sharing information we can join together in improving care for the elderly and vulnerable people in our society.

The care industry is massive and in the main receives pretty awful publicity - but I don't think we can only blame the care homes for this level of care. We should assume some responsibility for the poor care received in some residential environments because we don't do anything about it - and before you go ballistic; when you have read in the newspaper about baby P, or abuse in a nursing home, what have you actually done about it?

You have probably done the same as me, nothing. Until now. I invite comments from anybody that has an opinion on care homes in any form, let me know what you think - but if you have a complaint, suggest a remedy. Between us we might be able to come up with some answers and let's face it we won't know until we try and you never know where this blog might lead us.