Relatives of elderly people in care homes want tighter regulation. Photo: Shutterstock

Elderly people living in residential homes are sometimes faced with staff shortages, inadequate facilities, missing personal belongings and unqualified carers lacking in basic compassion, distressed relatives complain.

Relatives of people in elderly care homes have spoken about what they describe as a “flawed system” and called for tighter regulation.

Joe Briffa’s elderly father spent a year in private care while on the waiting list to enter a government home. The building lacked adequate facilities. According to Mr Briffa, the lifts could barely fit a single wheelchair.

“I’m afraid, the staff were far from dedicated. The whole atmosphere was more like a hostel than a home. At one point, I even came across an old woman lying on her own faeces in bed.”

The majority of the staff at the government home his father eventually moved in proved to be more dedicated and hard-working. However, Mr Briffa said he came across an appalling incident during one of his visits.

“While visiting my father, I would often have a look around me. Once I chanced upon a man being fed by one of the carers because he was unable to move from his bed. The carer hit him on the head because the patient could not open his mouth to eat. Is that humane?”

Mr Briffa lives directly opposite a private elderly home, where he said he regularly witnessed the residents being cleaned and undressed with the curtains wide open.

“Who recruits people for these homes? These poor people are being stripped of their dignity. It’s already distressing for them to be separated from their families. Coupled with the loss of their dignity, it’s heartbreaking.”

Catherine Caruana spoke about the lack of training in caring for the elderly. Her frail, elderly mother, a wheelchair user, was handled in a rough manner by the staff at a private care home. This was compounded by a shortage of night duty carers, with only one being employed to supervise the entire home during the night.

According to Albert Fenech, whose parents lived in a private residential home, the staff were pleasant and understanding.

The main problem he identified was total lack of facilities for the elderly, with no special equipment to aid mobility, especially in the bathrooms.

“Moreover, the overall atmosphere was generally depressing. Every morning, residents were herded into a large room and made to watch television. Unbelievably, it was normally tuned to MTV, showing rock, hip-hop and rap videos with grotesque sounds and gyrations which – considering that most residents were in their 70s and 80s – was considerably bizarre.”

The home did not have any air-conditioning facilities and, therefore, the windows were kept open in summer. Consequently, elderly residents were subjected to music blasting out of the adjacent bars, Mr Fenech said.

While Doreen Azzopardi Giappone’s aunt, aged 103, is happy and well cared for by devoted staff, she had an unfortunate experience in her former home, when she noticed that her jewellery was getting missing.

“We spoke to the head but she told us that if we didn’t actually witness any wrongdoing, no fingers could be pointed. My aunt had subsequently divided her jewellery among her relatives, saying that, at least, that way she knew where they were.

“It broke my heart to see her few possessions being stolen.”

A spokesman for the Parliamentary Secretariat for Rights of Persons with Disability and Active Ageing said the government had embarked on an audit process to identify weak points in the system and address them through constructive measures.

All homes for the elderly, including the privately-owned that hosted residents referred by the government, were licensed by the Health Care Standards Department under the responsibility of the Superintendent of Public Health.

As part of the licensing process, the spokesman added, the inspectorate team visited the homes to ensure the delivery of the required standard of care prior to issuing the licence.

The care of government residents in private homes was monitored by a multidisciplinary team. This coordinated the transfer of residents to public-private partnership homes and addressed the needs of the residents during their stay in the private homes.

The audit and management team carried out regular inspections in the various homes as well as a number of surprise inspections that could be necessary to investigate specific complaints.

All complaints related to the care of residents in such private homes were investigated and corrective action taken as required.

Any incidents related to theft, the spokesman said, were referred to the police for further investigations.