Plan for elderly at QEH

The Ministry of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs is pursuing an ambitious plan to free up to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), dozens of beds currently occupied by seniors who are not critically ill.

Barbados TODAY understands that with Government-run nursing homes either at or near capacity, authorities will be seeking to expand the Alternative Care for the Elderly project which partners with private nursing homes to house elderly persons.

Minister of People Empowerment and Elder Affairs Cynthia Forde revealed that plans for the construction of an alternative or additional Geriatric facility are not yet fully developed, but in the meantime, she is hoping to relieve the Ministry of Health and Wellness of its current responsibilities.

She was responding to concern from QEH Executive Chairman Juliette Bynoe-Sutherland and Democtatic Labour Party (DLP) spokesman on health, Paul Gibson that even with a spanking new Accident and Emergency department, the beds taken by almost 40 seniors was creating a “bottleneck”.

“We do have a lack of resources and facilities to accommodate them. We work closely with the Ministry of Health, however, because a year and a half ago we were able to speak with [Minister of Health and Wellness, Lieutenant] Colonel Jeffrey Bostic about challenges and they drew to our attention that there were senior citizens who were in the hospital occupying critical beds,” Minister Forde told Barbados TODAY.

“And what came out of our agreement was the Alternative Care Project, that is under the Ministry of Health, not us, and we are praying that we will be able to make some kind of proper arrangement that can officially be handed over to us so that the elder affairs department can work with it.

“We are on our way and we are trying to make the strides to ensure that wherever there are facilities that meet the criteria for having these seniors, that we can work with the alternative care programme with the Ministry of Health so that some of them can be siphoned out of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, releasing those critical beds and then they could be in homes where the necessary care will be extended to them so that they can live a long and safer life,” she added.

The minister stressed that she sympathises with persons who are unable to shoulder the burden of working full-time, while attempting to care for an elderly relative. But she stressed that the geriatric facilities have reached the point where they “can’t take anymore” because of the “ballooning” number of elderly, particularly those with dementia.

“Families are frustrated and sometimes they go to the hospital for general illnesses and then the family says but how can I go back and pick him or her up when I know that I can’t balance that with raising my family and getting the work done,” said Forde.

In fact, the minister noted that even outside of the QEH hospital, the country’s growing elderly population continues to present some challenges.

When asked to provide an update on plans for a new geriatric facility, she noted that discussions are ongoing with the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) to ensure that any institution would provide a world-class experience.

“There is no point in going to open a home, then you don’t have the hospital beds to facilitate those who really need them, or you don’t have all of the facilities that are required. And then you need persons who are properly trained to be able to work with those persons and that is the reason why we looked at the elderly care programme,” she explained.

“Every week I receive letters as though I am a civil servant and I take them because I am here to help. People are asking if I can have their families assigned to the district hospitals, but the district hospitals can only hold so many and no more and that is where a lot of our problems are. But as I assure you, we have started to do a lot of groundwork for the last year and a half, trying to see how best we can come up with a facility and further policy,” Minister Forde concluded.
(kareemsmith@barbadostoday.bb)