SOUTH AFRICA: Heartbreak for Old Folk Dumped by Families

PORT ELIZABETH (The Herald), July 27, 2006: THE number of unidentified people at Port Elizabeth‘s public hospitals seems to be on the increase, and social workers believe these are people who are getting away from abusive situations at home. Most of the patients are old people, some of them picked up on the side of the road by ambulances. Livingstone Hospital social worker Albert Mthombeni said old people ran away from their houses because their money was taken from them. “They say they are being abused. Their own children or grandchildren take their pension money.” Mthombeni said other old people ran away from home because they did not like being sent to old-age homes. “Someone concerned phones an ambulance or the police and informs them there is a person lying there. Some are unconscious or semi-conscious when admitted to hospital.” He said hospital staff named the people according to the day they were admitted in hospital. “If for instance a person is admitted on Monday, we name him or her Monday One,” said Mthombeni. He said the relatives of the people either took time to respond or did not want to show up at the hospital. Mthombeni said keeping people at the hospital had a negative impact. “They use beds that could be used by other patients, especially if they stay for a long time. “It is actually a waste of the taxpayers‘ money.” Dora Nginza Hospital social worker, Pamela Rubushe, however, felt that the old people disappeared from home because they did not want to take responsibility for their children. “They end up staying in bushes, where they know they won‘t be paying rent or buying groceries.” Rubushe said when the people were identified by their relatives, they found out that they had left home after qualifying for the social grant. She said in cases where people were unidentified for a long time, they took them to frail care institutions. Mthombeni and Rubushe say it is difficult to allocate people to old-age homes or frail care centres if they do not have an ID or do not get a grant. Mthombeni said social workers put up posters on notice boards to try and find the relatives of the missing people. He said those with the necessary documents were taken to an old-age home. In a recent case, Mthombeni said it had been difficult to locate the relatives of a male patient, and they had to take him to an old-age home as he did not have an ID and was not receiving a state pension. “He also claimed that he owned a shack in Gelvandale, but we found out that he did not own that shack.” By Nomahlubi Sonjica Copyright © Johnnic Communications