We have, in the last couple of weeks, had two similar but inverted stories about two babies and their respective parents at Mater Dei Hospital. One sadly died and the case has prompted the Ombudsman to issue some pretty stiff recommendations in his judgement. Of course, our heart goes out to the bereaved parents. However, the shortcomings mentioned by the Ombudsman underline the points I have raised over the years about the lack of people skills in departments like the Casualty or Emergency, as it is more popularly called. What we have is a department bristling with security officers for the simple reason that anyone who has ever had the misfortune to have a loved one there knows that the triage system is one that negates humaneness and causes immense frustration.
The department is, by their own admission, shockingly understaffed with doctors and nurses there who have worked non-stop for ridiculously long and arduous hours in the tensest of atmospheres. One does not need to be a top psychologist to deduce that to keep sane they have to pare the service they give down to the bare essentials and the first veneer to be sacrificed is empathy. There seems to be a tacit agreement that eye contact is avoided as much as possible and that the patients and their loved one, as only one person is allowed in at a time, is told as little as possible if anything at all. This being kept in the dark plus the interminable waits between one test and another – I once spent five hours with my mother in Emergency till she was admitted – leads to frustration and agitation that necessitates the presence of all the security guards milling about lest the French Revolution breaks out once more.
Would it not make sense to have a small team of trainee psychologists or psychiatrists whose job it would be to speak to people and reassure them that, although things appear to be taking their time, the patients are being observed? Would it not make eminent sense to have people who are qualified to deal emphatically with human beings to console and condole when things get bad? Think about it. It makes all the difference in the world.
On the other extreme, we had the parents of Baby Pea doing their level best to obstruct the doctors and the nurses at Mater Dei from doing their job because of some fad about natural methods. The story reads like a bad dream. While I wish Baby Pea a long, happy and healthy life I would hate to think what could happen if she developed some infantile complaint such as croup like the other baby and would only be taken to hospital when it was too late because nature had taken and run its course; possibly the wrong one. In this day and age when medical science has progressed to the extent it has, we have no right to deny it to anyone. It would be criminal to play God.
Mater Dei is a wonderful hospital which I am getting to know very well as time goes by. My mother, who is 82, has a heart condition with other complications and needs regular check-ups for this, that and the other while I am a diabetic and also need the occasional once over and telling off because it is so difficult to stick to my prescribed diet.
Getting back to the hospital and the staff, yes, of course, there are some rough edges and of course there is room for improvement, however, I am confident that even these will be dealt with in time. Things like treating old people like kindergarten kids, calling them by their first names and practically using baby language does not work for everybody.
I will never forget the awkward situation that arose when one of my uncles, Colonel GZ Tabona OBE, was admitted and the young male nurses less than a quarter of Uncle Tabby’s age addressed him as Godfrey; a name that nobody, not even his mother, had ever called him by. As that was the name on his ID card, I could hardly explain that Uncle Tabby had always been called Tabby so I made up a white lie and said his nickname was actually kurunell, which is what they happily called him till he died a couple of weeks later. Why did I have to lie?
Many old people today are perfectly compos mentis and, just because their bodies let them down with increasing frequency, does not mean they have to be treated like the mentally infirm. Why could Uncle Tabby not have been called Colonel Tabona as a matter of course? Do old people have to be addressed as Mary and John just because they are old? Why can they not be Mrs X and Mr Y? I cannot understand it.
Old people sum up their life’s achievements and if this is stripped of them what is left? If these nurses cannot tell the difference then they should be told for, one day, it is the fate of all of us, even them, to reach that awful and humiliating stage of dependency that comes with old age and, therefore, it is of paramount importance that all old people, without exception, are to be treated with the politeness and, above all, the dignity they more than deserve.
kzt@onvol.net