Elderly woman mistreated at nursing home
A nursing home along Braddell Road has been suspended from admitting new patients with effect from 12 April after a patient was reported to have been mistreated.
The incident at Nightingale Nursing Home came to light after a video of a patient being mistreated was sent to local broadcaster Mediacorp.
The footage was shot by a hidden camera on a patient's bedside. In the video, an elderly woman patient is seen sitting stark naked beside a bed with the room ceiling fans on.
She is then picked up by two hospital staff and thrown onto a bed, before a staff is shown slapping her on her mouth when she wailed in pain.
Watch what happened here.
Reports say the patient has been a resident there for four years and is suffering from stroke.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) said it has suspended the nursing home from admitting new patients from 12 April until further notice.
The nursing home has also disciplined the staff involved and put in place additional measures such as ward rounds by senior staff, regular meetings with patients and their family members, and management check on staff conduct and patients
In a statement to Yahoo! Singapore, a MOH spokesperson said, investigations into the video recording show "significant lapses in the care standards" to the patient in question.
"This should not have happened. There should have been tighter supervision of staff rendering care to vulnerable patients. Patient's dignity and respect must be upheld at all times," she said.
MOH will closely monitor the nursing home to ensure all additional measures required of it are properly implemented and if the suspension on the home should be reviewed or further sanctions imposed.
The elderly woman's son was upset with the incident. He said, "We sent her there for the nurses to take care of her; we're disappointed with what happened."
The elderly woman has been moved to another nursing home.
Netizens were unhappy with the mistreatment of the elderly woman.
nivek001 said, "How can anyone be so heartless. It just breaks my heart to see the video. I really hope that there will be justice. What goes around, comes around. Will some people in the right places do something about it?"
Others were concerned if other patients at the home were treated the same way.
"It really leaves a lot of room for us to wonder what kind of treatment/abuse the other elderly patients in the home have been subjected to as well," said Amber^^ on hardwarezone's forum.
