It shouldn’t take a royal commission to make sure we treat our elders with dignity
I should have suspected something about nursing homes when a veteran nurse retired in disgust, declaring that she could no longer see a birthday cake being recycled, one slice at a time, to celebrate a resident’s birthday. Outrageous as I found it, I could hardly ask one of the thousands of patients who passed through the hospital doors. But if I did, I think they’d all trade a dry and curled up slice of cake once a year for certain daily dignities like a tasty meal, a water jug within reach, and a timely change of their incontinence pads.
The Australian royal commission into aged care quality and safety is now underway, uncovering gut-wrenching accounts everywhere it looks. The stories of neglect, abuse, deprivation and disdain are pouring in. As I hear them, my mind summons its own roll call of witnesses, grown tired by now of repeating their stories to every hospital and every doctor on the coalface of modern medicine.
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