How could this happen?

I have written a few blogs about Mr Williams, the gentleman with Alzheimer's disease who passed away a little over a month ago while in the Aberdeen Hospital waiting for a long term care bed. He was assaulted by a commissaire and bruised and bullied ... there are other questions that need to be asked.

He was in a storage room for four days, eight hospital shift changes. The staff on eight shifts came and went and knew he was in a storage room...why was nothing done? Someone must have said to themselves..."Why is a patient stuck in a storage room with broken equipment and no pathway to the only window in the room?"

Why didn't one person find this unacceptable? Why was he left there until his family complained?

Is there not a minimum standard of care? Are there not basics that we can expect in a hospital?

I know the health care system in this province/country is badly in need of overhaul. I know we have a "new" government that inherited problems from previous administrations but how long must we as tax payers accept excuses for people not receiving the basic of the basics. A storage room for FOUR DAYS...give me a break! That is unacceptable.

What will be done to make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else?

Part of the Problem...or...Part of the Solution

This is an expression I learned early in life, everyone is either part of the problem or a part of the solution. I truly hope that I am on the solution side of the majority of situations that I have encountered.

By now most of you will have heard of John "Jackie" Williams and his last few weeks spent in the Aberdeen Hospital 'waiting'... There was no long term care bed available in a facility in Pictou County, so he spent his last days bruised and bullied in an inappropriate situation. The security guard/commissionaire who allegedly mistreated him, to my knowledge, did not have training or the skills required to care for a patient with Alzheimer's Disease. How many other "Mr. Williams" are out there? People who no longer have the mind and body of their youth, people who are at the mercy of the 'system', people who have no voice.

The first thing that must happen: Protect patients from contact with anyone not trained to work with the ill, physical and mental. If you have not already done so, I would ask you to take a few minutes to write your MLA, MP, Leader of the Opposition and anyone in the health care system that you feel might be able to make this happen. We cannot have patients with dementia in the care of a security guard. This is not acceptable.

The second thing that must happen: We must have adequate care facilities to accommodate the present requirements. Let's not talk about what the situation will be like in 5 or 10 years...let's deal with today. We need more long term health care beds for the aging, for those who cannot, through no fault of their own, look after themselves. There will be more information in the upcoming blogs about the statistics and about what you can do.

For more information on Alzheimer's Disease and their advocacy platform please visit http://www.alzheimer.ca/english/society/advocacy_intro.htm