28 — Sunday, March 10, 1996 — North Shore News Good care made Eleanor vintage years IMAGINE. ALL us old folks, mostly women, mind, but some men, too, being invited to tell the Lions Gate Hospital how we think they’re doing. Astonishing. They are clearly asking us to tell them how they could improve their conduct vis 4 vis elderly patients. We were brought up to have the greatest respect for anybody's hospital, but our own Lions Gate is high on everyone’s list as an excellent institution. We wouldn't dream of shaking an admoni- tory finger. But they meant it, were really serious about it. They were especially con- cemed with how we regarded their discharge procedures. Lyne Westwood, who is Director of Discharge of LGH. actually carried the meeting, inviting us to be honest and forthright and sug- gest guidelines which we thought would make it easier for ourselves and our families when the time came for us to go home. We were shy, natu- rally, but impressed with her outspoken invitation to recall This exploratory meeting had been arranged by Lionsview Seniors’ Planning Socicty, of which body Sheila Gilmour is president. {t was well attended, and each of the several long tables had a member of Lynn's Hospital staff included therein. Discussion was started with a preliminary list of questions posed by the Hospital itself, as in regards to the possible need for home care and where it could come from and if the actual departure from the hos- pital was performed suitably. I suppose it shouldn't come as a surprise, but more than 50% of those admitted to our haspital can be classed as seniors. Since the yearly patient roster numbers some 55,000, that's a lot of old folks, isn’t it? [was surprised. And you have to factor in to that the reality that once you are considered recupera- live, you have to go home. No more convalescent care in hospital in these parlous times. Space just isn’t there, any more. And also nowadays you go in to hospital on the day you are to have your operation — used to be you would be received 24 hours before, and have a chance to get oriented. It saves some money, you see, and money is a whale of a factor in every instance in these limes, as We ure all finding out. Peaple who have come fron the Interior, say, for diagnostic work or operations are now free to go stay ina motel, in fact are urged to do so. Hospital beds these days are valued at some three hundred bucks a day. It was suggested during the mecting that perhaps the hospitals will come to have social workers and care per- sons on their staff, to give the professional nurses the chance to use their training in serious medicine. Speaking around this last y OR LESS, PLUS ENVIRONMENT CHARGES AND TAXES INCLUDES: lubrication; up to 5 litres of Protec even better suggestion was a request for clearer identification of hospi- tal personnel. fl was always a cinch to spot a nurse in the olden days — she wore the starched uniform, the apron, the funny little hat that identi- fied her school of nursing practice. Nowadays they can be wearing anything, and we clearly need labels on them as well as on the cleaners and other assistants. Another irritation was exposed when it came to visi- tors. There's a pretty generous open-door policy it seems in these days regarding visitors. If one is lying in a four-bed room and all the relatives of all four patients come at the appointed hour, you find peo- ple sitting on your feet or leaning on your bed-head plus children milling about and upsetting one. People from foreign shores are apparently accustomed to having the entire extended family visit the sick-bed, and that’s nice, but could they please be admitted in relays? Obviously some of the ret- icence had been put aside by the time we'd spent a couple of hours together, but we seniors felt relieved and the staff people seemed actually grateful for our suggestions. We were still a little sheepish at biting the hand, as it were, but were assured it was help- ful. They were very brave, we felt, and very understanding. difficulties we had encoun- tered, and we gradually got over the fact that we were being so presumptuous. We grew up in the days when doctors were mostly remote and nurses were most- ly thoroughly bossy. Those women were stiff with starch . and accustomed to command, and brooked no argument about bed-pans (always cold) or liniments or pills in any number. 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