Old folk are left to suffer
IF you live in Australia you’ve won the lottery of life.
I’ve said that many a time but, sadly, for an increasing number of elderly people the Australian dream turns into a nightmare.
The most liveable status of our capital cities doesn’t mean much when you are being fed slop, lying in your own filth and suffering because of substandard pain management.
This is the lot of older Australians who have been let down.
John Callaghan’s family entrusted a facility on the Gold Coast to take care of the retired entrepreneur as he battled cancer.
What they didn’t expect is to find their loved one in terrible pain with maggots crawling out of his ear.
His widow, Fay, says he begged to be moved from the facility saying ‘‘this is a terrible place, it’s dreadful, they don’t look after you, please get me out.” Mr Callaghan died at a nearby hospice days after being moved.
A nurse who worked at the same Bupa facility said patients were showered only once a week and some were left in their own waste due to rationing of incontinence pads.
How can this happen in a prosperous and enlightened country?
Why are our elderly who have worked hard, paid taxes and contributed to the country denigrated in their final months and years?
When you put a loved one in an aged care facility you expect they’ll be safe, cared for and treated with dignity.
However, the reality is very different for many, including Kathy Danvers-baker, who found her father semi-conscious, dehydrated and in distress at a Bupa nursing home in Eden.
John Danvers, a retired farmer, is lucky to be alive after being neglected.
“I found him passed out and thought he was deceased,” Ms Danvers-baker said. “He was severely dehydrated and delirious. There were pills under his bed that they were supposed to give him that he had knocked off the bedside table when he tried to reach them.
“I thought we’d be safe with Bupa, it has this amazing reputation as being one of the most professional health care providers but what goes on inside the homes doesn’t match their glossy booklets.
“For some of the staff, it was just a job, there was a severe lack of care.”
That opinion of second-rate care is shared by Ray Tilley whose late mother suffered multiple falls during the two years she spent at a Bupa home.
“The registered nurse on duty would ring me to say that mum’s had a fall (and asked) do you want us to send her to hospital? I said ‘mate, why are you asking me? I can’t see her injuries’, I said ‘you’re a registered nurse – why can’t you make this call?’,” Mr Tilley said.
Jane Rankin-reid, late mother Shirlee, also complained of inferior levels of care at a Bupa home in Hobart. She told her family she was regularly dropped, given the wrong medication and was a victim of emotional abuse.
Of course it is not just Bupa homes that are an issue, another nearby nursing home in Hobart reportedly had faeces on a shower curtain that was left uncleaned for 11 weeks.
There are too many horror stories to detail and many more will come to light as the aged care royal commission continues to hear from families, former employees and other stakeholders.
But Bupa has been the focus of media reporting this week as it has been revealed that the global health giant, which has more than 70 facilities across Australia, has multiple breaches for failing to provide adequate pain management, nutrition, infection control and palliative care. They also have breaches for lack of cleanliness, emotional support and resident dignity.
Australia’s ageing population presents significant challenges not just for families with loved ones needing intensive care but authorities charged with monitoring the booming aged care sector.
More and more will need to rely on nursing homes to care for our parents when they become unable to care for themselves. In 1977 we had
1.3 million Australians over the age of 65, representing just nine per cent of the population. In 2017 the figure is 3.8 million over the age of 65, making up 15 per cent of the total population. By 2057, when I have well and truly joined their ranks there will be 8.8 million of us over 65 and we’ll be 22 per cent of the population.
Paul Versteege, from Combined Pensioner and Superannuation Association, believes the current compliance system including sanctions and threats to revoke operating licences “is an absolute joke”.
“Every time the regulator slaps a notice on Bupa, it just laughs, because it knows it’s too big to fail,” he said.
“The only thing that will pull them into line is, first, to hit its bottom line with hefty fines.”
National Seniors Australia CEO John Mccallum wants rogue operators to face criminal charges if they fail their clients.
“In the case of nursing homes, where there are vulnerable clients, the management should be held accountable and, in the worst case, management should face jail if serious accidents happen on site,” he said.
The plight of at-risk elderly people in aged care facilities is not one that receives the media coverage the issue warrants. Our elderly deserve to spend their golden years in comfort and dignity. It’s the least we can do.