*Bamidele Johnson.
One of the most heartbreaking sights at government hospitals is that of elderly people navigating the wards alone, trying to work out labs, billing, consultations and everything in between while nobody at all is paying attention to whether they manage it. It does my head in every time.
Don’t hospitals have people whose job is to help with this? They most likely do.
But imagine being 80, overwhelmed, hearing or seeing poorly, unfamiliar with a system built by and for people half your age and not even knowing who to ask for help. A service existing on paper isn’t the same as a patient being able to access it. The gap between the two is where the elderly quietly fall through.
There is a chance that with punishing patient loads and too few hands, hospital staff are stretched well beyond what any human being should be asked to carry. In that situation, even the most mild-mannered among them would struggle to stay calm and I understand why. Something still has to be done.
I don’t doubt that it is a bad thing for seriously infirm elderly people to turn up at hospital without a child, grandchild or family member beside them. But on many occasions, circumstances simply conspire and there is no one free to come. The system needs to help a bit more than it currently does. It is a sad, undignified thing to watch an old person struggle through it alone.