A scene from an A&E unit, taken secretly by RTÉ News recently
Further to the A&E crisis and ahead of the Irish Nurses and Midwife Organising holding a protest outside the Dáil tomorrow
“The cost of keeping an elderly person in an acute hospital bed is significantly less than in a nursing home, speaking purely in financial terms. There is, however, a much greater personal cost in terms of sleep deprivation, loss of personal dignity and control, and loss of social networks….the frail elderly person, often with some degree of dementia, will find this sleep deprivation to be even more terrifying than the fit young man with a leg fracture. They have no one with whom to develop a relationship, as the other patients constantly change and staff also change about. Those waiting – for three, four, or even more months – in these conditions to have central funding released to allow nursing home care might well be described as victims of institutional abuse. Remember that these people are also required to surrender 80 per cent of their liquid assets and continuing cash flow to obtain a “Fair Deal”.”
Patrick Plunkett, a clinical professor of emergency medicine at St James’s Hospital in Dublin, in today’s Irish Times
‘Granny dumping’ to blame for blocking beds, doctors warn (Philip Ryan, Sunday Independent)
Crisis in emergency departments (Irish Times letter page)
Previously: Corridors Of Power
solution: CAROUSEL!!!! sign me up now!!
And that’s only IF you can qualify your elderly relative for the “Fair Deal” home care package.
A friend of the family whose mother is 84 and can only dress herself with assistance in the morning were refused the ‘Fair Deal’ because they said she could mind herself.
They do carry out a mickey mouse test, but most will fail it, because the govt doesn’t want or cannot handle the explosion of elderly happening right now.
So, ‘granny dumping’ says he, but he left out… by people, I believe, with no where else to go no other option available. Even those who give up their jobs to do ‘home support’ get little to no help… sure where else can they go but the hospital.
Again, it’s back to Reilly’s lies – they weren’t broken promises – he never did anything to get the external to hospital services in place to replace the cutbacks in the hospitals. He lied, plain and simple. But, he has a nice pension and he took care of his own constituency and a business he can work in when he retires from politics. He minded himself. That’s all.