London, July 22 (RHC)-- A report conducted by academics has revealed that one in three patients over the age of 65 in hospitals are treated with sub standard care with those who are blind or deaf receiving the worst care.

The study was conducted by academics from the London School of Economics. It found that a lot of those patients in hospitals were treated badly, particularly older patients, and that the problem has been around for many years.

The study based on survey of 60,000 hospital patients showed that one in three patients that required help in eating did not receive it. The report has led to calls for the National Health Service (NHS) to improve its care for elderly patients.

Katherine Murphy, the chief executive of the Patients Association, said: "These figures are shocking but not surprising. We have known for many years that elderly people are very frequent users of the health services yet are often at the receiving end of poor and undignified care."

"Widespread and systematic pattern of inconsistent or poor standards of care during hospital stays. Patient experiences of inconsistent or poor standards of care do not appear to be limited to isolated "outlier" healthcare providers but rather appears to be a significant general problem affecting inpatients in the vast majority of NHS acute hospital trusts," the report concluded.