RCP report condemns UK incontinence care standards

The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has criticised the standard of care offered to bladder and bowel incontinence sufferers in the UK following the publication of a new report.

Results from the National Audit for Continence Care have been revealed by the RCP this week, following a study of 18,253 people cared for by NHS trusts, mental healthcare trusts and care homes.

It was found that diagnosis and treatment of incontinence is "often poor or non-existent", with the report highlighting a lack of diagnosis or care plans in place for the condition, as well as failures in training and management responsibility.

The RCP therefore called for improvements to commissioning frameworks and greater patient empowerment.

Dr Adrian Wagg, clinical director of the audit, said: "Although these are treatable conditions, people of all ages and vulnerable groups in particular continue to suffer unnecessarily and often in silence with a life sentence of bladder and/or bowel incontinence."

This comes after Mark Flannagan, chief executive of the charity group Beating Bowel Cancer, suggested this week that bowel cancer is not being treated effectively due to the taboo nature of the condition.