Abandonment of relatives now labelled a societal norm
Published:Wednesday | August 16, 2023 | 12:08 AMChristopher Serju/Senior Gleaner Writer
Senior medical officer at the Cornwall Regional Hospital Dr Derek Harvey is convinced that the wide-scale abandonment of mostly elderly patients at the facility is a reflection of how the society at large views the elderly.
On Monday, Opposition Spokesman on Health and Wellness Dr Morais Guy circulated a video showing patients lying on the floor at the Montego Bay, St James hospital and called on Minister of Health and Wellness Dr Christopher Tufton to act with urgency to address the issue.
However, Harvey pointed out that these are largely social cases, patients who had already received medical attention and had been abandoned by their relatives.
“The social cases are the ones who can get out of hospital and they are there for some time and you realise that no relatives are visiting. Nobody is coming to take responsibility and therefore you now have to get the social worker involved and who will try to see if they can find the family members,” he said. “Usually they tell you that the person is only a distant cousin and they don’t have the wherewithal to look after the person, so the government has to take the responsibility. That boils down to a cultural problem of how as a society we deal with our elderly. I also know of persons who congregate on the hospital compound in the evenings and sleep here at night for safety.”
Harvey explained that children are also among the social cases but are more easily dealt with, since the Office of the Children’s Advocate, the Child Protection and Family Services Agency and the Bustamante Hospital for Children are always willing to help.
“You can liaise with a children’s group or through other government agencies to get a child placed. It is the adults that create problems and the majority of them tend to be males.”
Harvey said many of these people are abused by the public and, when they are harmed, will turn up for treatment [and] tend to hang around afterwards.
“We do have patients who are less fortunate and are abused by someone throwing something at them and so might suffer trauma. Or you may someone who has an underlying medical problem such as diabetes. Those are treated. Yes, they are potential social cases, but they would be known as patients while here and not labelled as social cases.”