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Responding to the Care Quality Commission's review of privacy, dignity and nutrition in hospitals and care homes, NHS Confederation deputy director of policy Jo Webber said:

"No-one trains to be a clinician or joins the NHS without wanting to provide the best care for patients, to respond to those in need, and to help them feel better. We must nurture in staff this fundamental desire which is at the heart of the NHS and its values, and support them to deliver care they are proud of, and about which they can genuinely say 'If I were ill, I would want to be cared for in this way'."

On privacy and dignified care, Ms Webber said:

"It is every patient's fundamental right to be treated with dignity, and it is every NHS staff member's job to make sure that all patients are treated with the respect and dignity they deserve. Anything less and we are not doing our jobs right.

"We should consider any occasion when we fail to provide dignified care to be as significant as a medication error or similar untoward incident.

"Dignified care means ward staff not holding a conversation above the heads of their patients as they go about their work. It means making sure patients don't have to repeatedly ask for help to eat and drink, or to use the toilet. Dignity means that every single minute they're working, every member of NHS staff - from the board to the ward - should have at the front of their mind that their patient is not a health condition or illness in its own right, but an individual who happens to have health and care needs."

On nutrition and hydration, she added:

"It is essential that the nutritional needs of patients, especially older patients or people who may not have the strength or ability to feed themselves, are identified on admission to hospital and assessed throughout the course of their stay.