Sunday, 30 January, 2022
The management team of a care home for the elderly have been dismissed following the revelations of the appalling conditions in which the residents were kept, Yeniduzen reported.
It was reported that at the People’s Foundation Elderly Nursing Home in Borderüstü, 40 people had Covid-19, rainwater was pouring into the building and there was damp rot on the walls.
The condition of the elderly inmates was shocking, many of whom had scabies. The whole building smelt of urine and faeces. Around forty bedridden residents were left without nursing care at night, the report said.
The President of the Elderly Rights and Mental Health Association Prof. Dr. Hatice Jenkins said, “ I’ve been begging you every year for five years to fix this nursing home’s ceiling. I have been writing to you since September, warning, begging! Now our politicians are running there as if nothing had happened. Will they be ashamed of what they see?”
Prime Minister Faiz Sucuoğlu stated that the care home is affiliated to the Foundations Administration. He blamed the administrators for the parlous state of the building and its residents. Sucuoğlu also said that families of the residents should have complained. He said, the attitude of the management was “we do it, you cannot interfere“.
An investigation will be made into the negligence and abuse the residents have suffered. He also said that staff on the site should have pointed out the condition of the building.
Meanwhile, the President of the Elderly Rights and Mental Health Association Prof. Dr. Hatice Jenkins accused the government of only intervening after the scandalous situation had been made public by the press. Dr. Jenkins said that she had been trying to bring this matter to the attention of the authorities for five years. She said that she had learned her lesson and that the best way to get any response was not to approach the authorities but to go public.
