Minister of Health Donville Inniss believes inability to manage elderly relatives with dementia or serious chronic illnesses is the real reason most Barbadians are leaving them at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH).
In a reversal of his previously stated position that these elderly folk were being “abandoned” the minister told the WEEKEND NATION yesterday: “I have used the term a bit myself. But?I have come to the realisation that it is not that individuals don’t really love their elderly ones. It is just that a lot of them are incapable of managing.”
He said it was not easy to manage someone who has dementia, Alzheimer’s disease or a serious chronic illness, “so what people often resort to is leaving them at the QEH with the thinking that they will eventually be placed in the district hospital under some long-term care under the Ministry of Health.”
Inniss said the issue of elderly individuals and management of them continued to loom large in the health sector and he had moved to “speed up” the transfer process from the QEH into other health care facilities, though he acknowledged other health care institutions had their limitations.
He said the physical part of all the plants were “aged” and renovation often meant having to take some residential care space out of use.
But he said a range of options were being considered that would eventually lead to expanded care facilities for the elderly. One option would be to make “a more thorough assessment of those who come for residential care” he said, since “a lot of them are not critically ill and therefore not in need of QEH or tertiary care facility”.
However he maintained “some serious means testing” would have to be done to determine whether some people could afford to pay.
“My view is that an individual who comes under the care of the state for long-term, residential services and who receive pensions or other sources of income should be in a position to contribute something to their care.”
At the same time he cautioned that in effecting any such policy government would have to ensure it did not result in individuals keeping their elderly in less than acceptable conditions at home.
“We need to get the private sector and NGOs more on board in respect of providing day care services for the elderly,” Inniss said.He spoke following the opening of a newkitchen facility at the Geriatric Hospital.
