The Doctor Will See You Now [Non-Fiction]

Chapter 64: Geriatrics

Some relatives really cheese me off.

We get a lot of old people who get admitted to hospital for one reason or another and whenever there are discharge problems, they always pop up on the day of discharge, and never before.

Suddenly, when old Polly has taken a turn for the better after her bout of pneumonia and is fit for discharge, her son decides he actually can't take her home any more and she has to go to a nursing home. Even though she's back at her baseline alertness and mobility. And caring for her has never been raised as an issue during the week she has been in hospital during multiple doctor and nursing updates. But now she can go home, oh, no, the son is suddenly having major concerns about her going home.

Or when little frail old Susie who tripped over her cat and fell and now has undergone rigorous physiotherapy so she can walk just as well as prior to her admission, her daughter can't take her home because her (the daughter's) elective surgery next week is suddenly making her daughter unable to care for her. This sudden change in events of the daughter's planned elective surgery that has never been mentioned during Susie's week-long stay when she was undergoing rehab. And now the daughter requests Susie stays in an acute hospital for a whole month so the daughter can recover from her own surgery.

I'm not saying offsprings have an obligation to care for their parents. I appreciate there are carer burdens and would never shame someone for admitting to being unable to fulfil the care needs of someone who is frail and elderly nor am I privy to why they can't provide the care. But we are talking about someone who has gotten briefly unwell and has returned to their baseline function, not someone who has had a devastating stroke or undergone major surgery and has gotten a permanent reduction in function. And they never said anything during the patient's (free) hospital stay until the day of discharge. Even if that baseline is still beyond the care abilities of the offsprings, the offsprings could have said so early in the admission so we could have referred the patient to a social worker and started hunting for suitable discharge destinations during the patient's recovery instead of making them stuck in a hospital waiting to acquire hospital-related infections and take up one of our acute hospital beds for no reason. But obviously the offspring has to pay for a nursing home placement, and they don't need to pay a penny for the patient's hospital stay.

Later, the social worker speaks to Susie's daughter and advises for a nursing home for a short period until the daughter's recovered from her elective surgery. The daughter refuses because nursing homes are expensive and the care isn't up to her standard.

Can I post this in r/choosingbeggar?

I'm sorry, but I'm definitely judging. This is selfish behaviour and a waste of taxpayer's money.