The consideration missing behind closed doors - Guardian
Extract:
"But it is not just a lack of care, it is a lack of common sense among care home staff. Rarely after calling an ambulance do the care home staff have the sense to unlock the front doors, or send someone to lead us to the patient.
All too often I have gone to care homes where the staff seem to know nothing about the patient. The patients aren't spoken to, just washed and watered. I walk past rooms where the bedbound are left staring at the TV for hours. I witness the nurses giving drugs to patients without knowing what the drugs are for, or their possible side effects. All this while cold food sits on tables, untouched because the patients aren't helped to eat it.
It's not just the homes that can be at fault. I recently put in a report about a doctor who prescribed a "teaspoon of salt in a cup of lemon juice, to be taken three times a day" to a 93-year-old woman. An ambulance officer will be visiting the GP and investigating this dangerous advice."
What is to be done about these care homes that provide 'uncare', unkindness and a ghastly end to the lives of so many old people? - And who in possession of a scrap of sense or common decency could prescribe a "teaspoon of salt in a cup of lemon juice, to be taken three times a day" to anyone? - And how can drugs take priority over food? - Good food is the best medicine...
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Further about poor care in care homes...
Posted by Willow at 11:39 pm
Labels: care homes, Elder abuse
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