Re: Elderly patient left on bedpan for days
As I posted yesterday, there are many factors that contribute to the development of decubitus ulcers, the hospital admits hours but denies days, and there's been nothinbg in the news about this case since that initial flurry
ten days ago, which indicates that there isn't really a story of neglect here.
That there has been since is
this editorial comparing the helpless patient to poor governmental management. For those of you who don't like clicking on links, the first para:
YESTERDAY the Herald published the story of an elderly man left on a bedpan in Concord Repatriation General Hospital for as long as five days, who then had to undergo emergency surgery to treat the infection and injury it had caused him. The story will shock many in this state, but possibly not surprise them. Stories of failings in a health system under sustained pressure are so many and so frequent that they no longer elicit much more than a shrug. What NSW citizens should infer from that story is the need for someone capable to hold the health portfolio. Yet they will see a state government which now has a health minister in name only - the closest thing to no minister at all. And there is little prospect that the health portfolio will get a minister soon. The Premier, Nathan Rees, one year into his tenure of the office, dare not bring on a vote for a new ministry in caucus for fear of the outcome for his own position.
Shocking.
Nursing News