Granny-Dumping

conorh91

The recent A&E crisis has been predicted to worsen over the coming weeks. It seems that one substantial cause of the crisis is granny-dumping, the phenomenon where a family abandons an elderly relative in the hospital after their treatment has ended, perhaps because they are unwilling to look after them anymore.

The elderly patient is ready to be discharged, but the family refuse to pick them up.

I can understand that some elderly patients have no children. But speaking to people who work in this area, most of these unfortunate elderly patients do have families.

How can anyone do this to their own parent? They are taking advantage of the humanitarian nature of healthcare workers, whom they know would never turn an elderly patient out on the street.

Everyone is talking about how the Minister and the HSE need to fix this problem. Why is nobody blaming the granny-dumpers?

AboutaWeekAgo

Thought this would be like cow tipping but with oul' ones. You let me down OP.

BlatentCheek

Where did you hear about this?

mikom

conorh91 wrote: »

Why is nobody blaming the granny-dumpers?

Granny-dumpers.............. great name for a porno.

On a more serious note, Granny-dumping happens every Christmas as selfish pricks want to have a Granny free knees-up.
Source........... A&E and Geriatric care nurses close to me.

Ps. FG are still pricks though.

Lisha

How about if there was a suitable widely available system that helped/enable relatives to look after their unwell aged family members.
Home help hours have been cut to minutes per elderly person and families who are busy or working are simply unable to provide 24/7 care.

mariaalice

It does not happen like that except In exceptional cases the vast majority of family want the best for their parents and grandparents going home might not be possible they might need nursing home care which take forever to organise.

physioman

conorh91 wrote: »

The recent A&E crisis has been predicted to worsen over the coming weeks. It seems that one substantial cause of the crisis is granny-dumping, the phenomenon where a family abandons an elderly relative in the hospital after their treatment has ended, perhaps because they are unwilling to look after them anymore.

The elderly patient is ready to be discharged, but the family refuse to pick them up.

I can understand that some elderly patients have no children. But speaking to people who work in this area, most of these unfortunate elderly patients do have families.

How can anyone do this to their own parent? They are taking advantage of the humanitarian nature of healthcare workers, whom they know would never turn an elderly patient out on the street.

Everyone is talking about how the Minister and the HSE need to fix this problem. Why is nobody blaming the granny-dumpers?

Your right. Having worked in a hospital, it was a common occurrence. I pityed the hospital discharge coordinator who had to sort out where the patient would end up going after being discharged.
It all unfortunately comes down to money and greed. People just don't want to pay for a nursing home or don't want to get involved in the fair deal scheme because the land, property etc that will be inherited to them will be used a collateral for payment to stay in a nursing home.
From my experience it is generally the better off in society that are involved in 'bed blocking'. The poorer in society generally have a more family oriented approach and it is for these people that resources need to be funded for home helps etc to reduce the pressure on hospitals.

mariaalice

It does not happen like that except In exceptional cases the vast majority of family want the best for their parents and grandparents going home might not be possible they might need nursing home care which take forever to organise.

My mother went in to a nursing home from hospital and got fantastic care she should have gone in the nursing home much earlier and would have had a much better quality of life.

RobbingBandit

Thought this was a thread on how to break up with cougars.

conorh91

Lisha wrote: »

Home help hours have been cut to minutes per elderly person and families who are busy or working are simply unable to provide 24/7 care.

I find this argument hard to understand.

Do you really think all these patients need "24/7" care? I understand that it's inconvenient, I understand that it's costly, but this is your parent.

Imagine parents dumped their kids in school and refused to pick them up because looking after kids is too costly.

People have family responsibilities, and that has to extend to the responsibility to look after one's parents in old age, even where it is inconvenient and difficult to do so, until such time as help is organized.

BlatentCheek wrote: »

Where did you hear about this?

I thought it was pretty widely understood. Health reports on TV have been mentioning it, friends who work in Dublin hospitals, etc.

AndonHandon

But the gubernment, it's all der fault.

Mr. Incognito

Yeah it's all the irresponsible families fault for leaving the Grannies who have not a thing wrong with them on Trolleys for days and days.

Apart from the fact the HSE has no beds to put them in and chronic shortages while half their staff take 30+ fully paid sick days leave per year.

It's all the families fault that the HSE is bloated with Middle Management and Unions that threaten strike if someone doesn't kiss their arse every two weeks.

Would you go away and get the FCUK out of that with ridiculous nonsense like blaming the families for their sick relatives who expect some basic level of human decency when they visit the backwater holes in this country that call themselves hospitals.

This level of deflection makes me sick

mariaalice

conorh91 wrote: »

I find this argument hard to understand.

Do you really think all these patients need "24/7" care? I understand that it's inconvenient, I understand that it's costly, but this is your parent.

Imagine parents dumped their kids in school and refused to pick them up because looking after kids is too costly.

People have family responsibilities, and that has to extend to the responsibility to look after one's parents in old age, even where it is inconvenient and difficult to do so, until such time as help is organized.


I thought it was pretty widely understood. Health reports on TV have been mentioning it, friends who work in Dublin hospitals, etc.

But sometime family cant provide the care they need no matter how much home help and adapting the house you do.

My mother was in and out of hospital about 5 times before she went in the nursing home, now she would have been better off going in to the nursing home earlier and she would have avoided the hospital all together, ever time she came our of the hospital she had declined further.

I have no fear of going in to a nursing home if that's what I would need, it would beat hobbling around barley able to manage getting worse and worse when you could be in a warm dry safe comfortable environment with all your care needs met.

BBJBIG

Suppose tis better than throwin yer granny off the Bus ...

hoodwinked

i think people forget that not every parent is good to their child, and when it comes down to that child having to look after that parent the child generally wants very little to do with them.

Some parents can be poisonous, vindictive and nasty, and the way our system is set up, even if you try to get help for a parent you love the resources are scarce enough, so when the child no longer cares about that parent these things can happen.

mariaalice

physioman wrote: »

Your right. Having worked in a hospital, it was a common occurrence. I pityed the hospital discharge coordinator who had to sort out where the patient would end up going after being discharged.
It all unfortunately comes down to money and greed. People just don't want to pay for a nursing home or don't want to get involved in the fair deal scheme because the land, property etc that will be inherited to them will be used a collateral for payment to stay in a nursing home.
From my experience it is generally the better off in society that are involved in 'bed blocking'. The poorer in society generally have a more family oriented approach and it is for these people that resources need to be funded for home helps etc to reduce the pressure on hospitals.

Long term hospital care can be charged in the same way as the fair deal scheme.

Markcheese

"Physioman.
" It all unfortunately comes down to money and greed. People just don't want to pay for a nursing home or don't want to get involved in the fair deal scheme because the land, property etc that will be inherited to them will be used a collateral for payment to stay in a nursing home."
That could be sorted quickly -if a patient who refuses discharge to home or a step down was billed the full cost of the acute hospital bed- if they've no assets then no one is gonna lose sleep over this- if they have property and wealth it could work out a lot cheaper all round to go with fair deal scheme -
In saying that it's not always the family- my dad was in a cardio ward recently - very elderly lady in same ward was refusing to move - she was sick of her family ect - and was happier in hospital so no budging her -(staff were trying to admit her to a different hospital ,she was having none of it )

Fr_Dougal

Where's grandad?!

conorh91

mariaalice wrote: »

But sometime family cant provide the care they need no matter how much home help and adapting the house you do.

I accept that. Obviously in the hypothetical case of a patient with alzheimers, where her only daughter is a single mum working minimum wage, the daughter is simply unable to help.

But that is not representative of most families. Most elderly people probably have about 4 adult children, maybe more. I don't think it's credible to assert that the vast majority of granny dumpers are simply unable, so much as unwilling, to experience the inconvenience of caring for a loved-one.

But of course i would never say that applies to everyone. It does seem to be a problem among some families though, and that's all I am addressing.

boredatwork82

Our granny has been turfed out by all her family and lives with us now. She is a cruel manipulative woman who treats people like dirt and has no gratitude towards anyone.

Thank you for letting me know how to get rid of her correctly.

boredatwork82

Our granny has been turfed out by all her family and lives with us now. She is a cruel manipulative woman who treats people like dirt and has no gratitude towards anyone.

Thank you for letting me know how to get rid of her correctly.

ezra_pound

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

Yeah it's all the irresponsible families fault for leaving the Grannies who have not a thing wrong with them on Trolleys for days and days.

Apart from the fact the HSE has no beds to put them in and chronic shortages while half their staff take 30+ fully paid sick days leave per year.

It's all the families fault that the HSE is bloated with Middle Management and Unions that threaten strike if someone doesn't kiss their arse every two weeks.

Would you go away and get the FCUK out of that with ridiculous nonsense like blaming the families for their sick relatives who expect some basic level of human decency when they visit the backwater holes in this country that call themselves hospitals.

This level of deflection makes me sick

The issue is that the relatives we are discussing are NOT sick.

Kellford

You are absolutely right Conorh91, I work in the front line HSE and it is heart breaking, the granny has reached there base line post surgery or medical admission, than the family decide, we cant do it any-more, than the other family members get involved, none wanting to tell the old dears they are for long term care in shady acres, than the granny decided I not going, so what happens "Total grid lock". An other huge factor is the Nursing homes inability to look after simple complications in the elderly, dehydration and constipation. Both very manageable but if not prevented can case elderly patients to become very unwell and distressed. I dont understand why the cant administer Sub Cut fluids, fluid balance chart and bowel chart. Instead granny gets confused and hasn't gone to the toilet in a week, so is refusing to eat. Solution A&E on a trolley!

conorh91 wrote: »

The recent A&E crisis has been predicted to worsen over the coming weeks. It seems that one substantial cause of the crisis is granny-dumping, the phenomenon where a family abandons an elderly relative in the hospital after their treatment has ended, perhaps because they are unwilling to look after them anymore.

The elderly patient is ready to be discharged, but the family refuse to pick them up.

I can understand that some elderly patients have no children. But speaking to people who work in this area, most of these unfortunate elderly patients do have families.

How can anyone do this to their own parent? They are taking advantage of the humanitarian nature of healthcare workers, whom they know would never turn an elderly patient out on the street.

Everyone is talking about how the Minister and the HSE need to fix this problem. Why is nobody blaming the granny-dumpers?

The Bould Rabbit

This is actually quite a common occurrence in Pakistan, India, Bangladesh and them places.

end of the road

QUOTE=Mr. Incognito;93748109]half their staff take 30+ fully paid sick days leave per year.[/QUOTE]

link please. if true, with a job like that making sure staff have plenty of rest so they are fit to work is a necessary part of their life.

Mr. Incognito wrote: »

Unions that threaten strike if someone doesn't kiss their arse every two weeks.

bull****. that doesn't happen

SEPT 23 1989

I hope I die before i get old