Not all of them can withstand months of caring for their elderly parents and grandparents. Christmas, New Year's Eve, holidays are the times when hospitals are filled with old people. Not because their he alth suddenly worsened. Some families in this "simple" way solve the problem of caring for old parents.
More and more people go away for Christmas because they want to take a break from everyday life. There is nothing wrong with that, but only if this trip does not hurt anyone. But what to do when a grandfather or grandmother stays at home who require constant daily care? Those who can afford it rent a private company specializing in 24/7 care for seniors. Some people "drop" the old man to … the hospital.
Some people stop giving drugs to seniors
- Christmas grandma, Christmas grandpa. This is what we say about patients to whom the family calls an ambulance just before Christmas and tries to convince paramedics that the he alth of the senior has suddenly worsened - says Grzegorz Borstern, a doctor who has been on duty in the emergency room for over 30 years. - When, after examining the patient, I explain that nothing bad is happening, I often hear sincere words: "Take him to the hospital, because I am leaving". There are also worse practices: the family stops taking medications earlier, for example cardiological ones, limits the administration of fluids to have a "pad", that the old man's he alth has actually worsened. We don't grab anyone by the hand, but such conclusions can be reached after doing some basic research. Then it turns out that the patient's condition improves quickly after administering routine medications for a given disease.
The problem of sending seniors to the hospital before Christmas
- The problem of admitting seniors to the hospital before Christmas or holidays does exist, but on a much smaller scale than a few years ago - says Dr. Grzegorz Michalak, MD, director of medical treatment at the Bielany Hospital in Warsaw. - Patients are not admitted in our hospital for social reasons. Those who need medical care remain. It is true, however, that in the present organizational system of hospitals, the greatest problem with such situations is hospital emergency departments, which were created for completely different tasks. These patients come to the HED and each of them has to be examined and some analyzes performed.
We send our parents to the hospital becausewe lack empathy
The problem is not just heartlessness and selfishness. Some will say that old people got what they wanted because they raised their children as if they were the navel of the world. They didn't teach them empathy. The director of one of the hospitals in Warsaw, who wants to remain anonymous, often talks to adult children who want to send their father or mother to the hospital for Christmas. - Usually I hear that they work hard and they want to leave and rest during the holidays. What is significant, this usually applies to well-off people occupying prominent positions. They are so enchanted with each other that there is not enough space for old parents. I have not encountered such a problem in modest families. And if their seniors have to spend Christmas in the hospital, children and grandchildren sit by their bed from morning to night. Pathological environments are an exception.
In what institutions to seek help in caring for seniors?
In the pre-Christmas period and before long weekends, the ambulance service constantly brings old and sick people to the hospital. Witold Orłowski in Warsaw. - These people are often dehydrated, malnourished, sometimes require pharmacological support - says Aleksandra Słabik-Ledóchowska, director of treatment. - But the worst thing is that when the senior returns to form and does not need our help anymore, his relatives delay taking him home. The hospital pays the costs. I understand that the family wants to break away from difficult reality. But that does not justify dropping dependent parents in the hospital. But is there any other way out? What to do with a family member who requires 24/7 care and we have to leave? There are no state-run nursing homes in Poland that admit residents for 1-2 weeks. There are private institutions, but there you have to pay several hundred zlotys per night. Without a far-reaching reform of the care system for the infirm, hospitals will serve as storage facilities for the elderly for a long time.
monthly "Zdrowie"