Dear Editor,
I am more than bewildered as to what is the real purpose and role of the caregivers - appointed and paid by the State - at the Golden Age Home in Vineyard Town, St Andrew.
On Sunday, 17th February at around 10 am, I received a call from a resident at that Home, pleading for assistance to get to hospital as he had fallen and injured his left leg - which, by the way, was amputated just below the knee some years ago. Despite being in agony since the fall, which occurred all of two days prior, on February 14, the caregivers/medical professionals refused to expend any effort to get him the medical treatment required.
Since the pain was so intense and the fall happened on a Friday and it was now Sunday, the senior citizen was concerned that he had done irreparable damage to his hip and back and begged me to help get him to hospital. I eventually took him myself, with the assistance of a kind young man who attends the same church as the amputee. The gentleman was subsequently admitted to the Kingston Public Hospital, where the damage to his hip bone was found to be so severe as to warrant surgery and the insertion of pins to speed up the healing process.
So my question is this - just what is the purpose of these caregivers? When I got there on the Sunday in question, there were already nurses on staff; one of whom told me, quite unconcerned, that the injured resident had already been told that he would be taken to the doctor on Monday. So in other words, he should just wait! May I use this opportunity to remind said caregivers and indeed all professionals paid from the public purse that some of us are taxed and taxed very heavily so that they can be employed to provide essential services to their fellow Jamaicans.
Certainly one could argue that if this senior citizen were living on the streets, he might have got more prompt attention from one of several charitable organisations that assist 'street people' - or maybe even some passers-by. Instead, he was placed in a state home whose administrators showed such scant concern for his agony! And we can well wonder how many other residents at that home suffer in silence due to this inhumane treatment?! We taxpayers demand better service.
Shame on you!
Karen Jean E Brown
PO Box 5578
Kingston 8.
Concerns about Golden Age Home
-->
I am more than bewildered as to what is the real purpose and role of the caregivers - appointed and paid by the State - at the Golden Age Home in Vineyard Town, St Andrew.
On Sunday, 17th February at around 10 am, I received a call from a resident at that Home, pleading for assistance to get to hospital as he had fallen and injured his left leg - which, by the way, was amputated just below the knee some years ago. Despite being in agony since the fall, which occurred all of two days prior, on February 14, the caregivers/medical professionals refused to expend any effort to get him the medical treatment required.
Since the pain was so intense and the fall happened on a Friday and it was now Sunday, the senior citizen was concerned that he had done irreparable damage to his hip and back and begged me to help get him to hospital. I eventually took him myself, with the assistance of a kind young man who attends the same church as the amputee. The gentleman was subsequently admitted to the Kingston Public Hospital, where the damage to his hip bone was found to be so severe as to warrant surgery and the insertion of pins to speed up the healing process.
So my question is this - just what is the purpose of these caregivers? When I got there on the Sunday in question, there were already nurses on staff; one of whom told me, quite unconcerned, that the injured resident had already been told that he would be taken to the doctor on Monday. So in other words, he should just wait! May I use this opportunity to remind said caregivers and indeed all professionals paid from the public purse that some of us are taxed and taxed very heavily so that they can be employed to provide essential services to their fellow Jamaicans.
Certainly one could argue that if this senior citizen were living on the streets, he might have got more prompt attention from one of several charitable organisations that assist 'street people' - or maybe even some passers-by. Instead, he was placed in a state home whose administrators showed such scant concern for his agony! And we can well wonder how many other residents at that home suffer in silence due to this inhumane treatment?! We taxpayers demand better service.
Shame on you!
Karen Jean E Brown
PO Box 5578
Kingston 8.
Concerns about Golden Age Home
-->