Better nursing home model not allowed?
I refer to the article “Shelved: Plans for different model of nursing home” (Straits Times, Dec 21).
It states that “Such a design is meant to create a home-like environment and provide the residents with more privacy, autonomy and well- being, said Peacehaven.
Cannot give means tested subsidies to residents in “2 residents” rooms?
Though the project was announced by the funders in February, the Ministry of Health (MOH) told Peacehaven last month that it could not provide subsidies to residents staying in such rooms.
In response to queries, the MOH said: “As a matter of policy, it will be difficult for MOH to provide ongoing subsidies for patients staying in wards that are designed to proxy private or A-class ward configurations such as single or double-bedded rooms only. Such parameters will be hard to scale or to be financially sustainable, if applied to the rest of the aged care sector.”
Other countries have 2 to a room?
Unlike countries like Britain and Japan where the maximum number of people to a room is two, eight-bed rooms are the norm here.
The MOH suggested that Jade Circle convert more than half of the 60-bed facility to four-bed wards in order to enjoy the subsidy, said Peacehaven. However, this would add just four more beds, it added.”
Means tested subsidies do not cost more no matter how many in a room?
Since subsidies are means tested on each patient and therefore it does not cost the MOH more subsidies – why are we preventing innovation in the nursing home sector?
As to “Lien Foundation chief executive Lee Poh Wah said: “Unfortunately, we are aborting the project because reconfiguring the number of beds to a ward-like setting goes entirely against our ethos and vision of a future nursing home that helps persons with dementia age with dignity regardless of their socio-economic standing.
Peacehaven executive director Low Mui Lang said residents improved after some wards were converted to single and double rooms in Peacehaven in 2006. “They began taking pride in dressing up and initiating their own activities instead of being passive. Dementia patients also tend to get disoriented in a room with so many identical beds, or fight with their roommates due to the lack of personal space.”
Better care for residents is more important?
Research has shown that there are benefits to staying in private rooms, compared to shared ones. A British National Health Service study found that such residents suffer fewer infections and need less hospitalisation” – shouldn’t the paramount consideration be the better care of nursing home residents?
Who’s afraid of what?
With regard to “Such parameters will be hard to scale or to be financially sustainable, if applied to the rest of the aged care sector” – if Peacehaven can do it (“be financially sustainable”) – why would it matter at all “to the rest of the aged care sector”?
Leong Sze Hian
