ANOTHER report condemning standards at the Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals and yet more platitudes.

Sorry, but we are running out of patience.

Today we report on the Care Quality Commission giving the ORH Trust 10 days to improve its food service for patients, as it damningly says the sick are not getting the help they need at mealtimes.

It follows a report in January by the same body which highlighted a failure to meet four out of 16 care standards at the trust.

In both circumstances the trust comes out and says it is already tackling the issues, attempting to put on a gloss that things are not that bad and it is on top of the problems.

But why is this trust failing in the first place? Why are standards allowed to drop before the CQC picks it up? And when is someone going to show some real accountability?

Ensuring your patients are eating their meals — and getting the nutrition to help them in their recovery — surely must be core to caring for people. It is not good enough and those in charge should question what they are doing.

It will not be the fault of the overworked staff on the wards. We question whether the culture coming down from the top is allowing basic standards to be missed.

These are tough times for the public service but they are tough times for everyone.

To be blunt, we pay our taxes for efficient public services and we have a right to demand that — whatever the economic outlook. We do not pay our taxes for ailing people to be ignored in their hospital beds and platitudes from senior managers.

If there is not enough money from the Government then that must be tackled but at the end of the day it is time for ORH managers to step up and stop these failures occurring.