August 28, 2006
NO, NO, I WANTED TO BE LEFT A LITTLE LESS ALONE....:
Busy nurses 'leave elderly to starve' (Celia Hall, 29/08/2006, Daily Telegraph)
Vulnerable, elderly patients are starving in hospital because nurses do not have time to help them to eat, a charity says today.Age Concern says that six in 10 older patients were at risk of malnutrition in hospital and those over 80 had levels of malnutrition that were five times higher than younger patients.
It found that nine in 10 nurses said they did not always have time to help patients who needed assistance to eat.
advertisementTwo thirds of general hospital beds are occupied by the elderly.
You know...you stop having kids so you can focus on yourself and the next thing you know there are no young people to pay or care for you... Posted by Orrin Judd at August 28, 2006 11:09 PM
National universal healthcare is what progressives are fighting for.
Posted by: ic at August 28, 2006 11:52 PMBut won't the health-care workers be paid less than even Wal-Mart employees?
Posted by: ratbert at August 29, 2006 1:26 AM"Progressives?" Take back the language.
This is a strange kind of progress, which leads, back, back to when the aged, the superflous were left out in the cold to perish.
Posted by: Lou Gots at August 29, 2006 1:29 AMEating is an activity we take for granted, but many frail and physically or mentally ill elderly aren't interested in eating and once the food is put into their mouths, they either forget or simply refuse to chew or swallow. My mother who died recently from end stage dementia had lots of "help" eating and nonetheless "starved."
She and others like her may be exercising control of their final destiny in the only way left to them. National healthcare can be blamed for a lot of things, but I'm not sure that "starving the elderly" is one of them.
Posted by: erp at August 29, 2006 8:14 AMAnd they'll all be immigrants.
Posted by: oj at August 29, 2006 9:24 AM