Abandonment of elderly at QEH still critical concern

The rate at which elderly persons are being abandoned at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH) continues to be of grave concern for the Government, with officials taking steps to alleviate that problem while at the same time expanding spaces available for geriatric care.

This issue was raised by Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Health and Wellness Janet Philips, during Wednesday’s debate on the Appropriation Bill, 2022, in the House of Assembly.

She said health professionals’ numerous appeals for Barbadians to stop leaving their elderly family members stranded at the QEH have fallen on deaf ears.

“These people are being left in the QEH and not being collected by their relatives, and then the burden then falls on the persons at the hospital to then manage them as well as critical care persons. It’s an issue we have been trying to grapple with, whilst dealing with the issue of COVID,” Philips explained.

“That, in itself, is still a challenge for the QEH and on a daily basis we get the reports of persons who have been left, and they are clogging up the spaces not only in Accident & Emergency but they are also taking up valuable bed space that is needed for critical care patients.

“We have put a temporary measure in place where we have turned what was formerly the St Lucy District Hospital… into a quarantine facility… for those elderly persons that have been left at QEH to transition there until we can find spaces in the geriatric system,” she added.

Furthermore, Philips said, the former Elayne Scantlebury Centre in River Bay, St Lucy will also soon be pressed into service for geriatric care after some much needed repairs.

“We are working on the roof and are hoping to get it finished by the end of this financial year. That would free up an additional 28 bed spaces so that we can help the QEH relieve some of the congestion of the elderly persons in the hospital,” she said.

Adding that Barbadians need to be educated on elderly care, Philips added: “The issue is a wide issue. We need to really have an expansive educational programme [to tell Barbadians] ‘you need to take care of your family and if you cannot take care of your family, you need to work in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Wellness to help them’. But the QEH should not be a dumping ground for old people who have laboured and toiled in the fields and who have sent us to school and made us men and women.”
(SB)