MY GRANDMOTHER stays in a private nursing home here. When I register my visit in the home's log book, I like to browse through the records to see how many visitors were in her ward during the week.
Tallying the number of visits a week made by all visitors, I notice that the weekly average is a paltry figure of about one visitor per patient.
This average figure masks the fact that some patients get visitors almost daily, while others do not get visitors at all.
This is despite the fact that women of my grandmother's age would typically have at least one child and are likely to have grandchildren.
I welcome Mr Leong Kok Seng's call to reduce the cost of nursing homes here ("Make it easier to care for Singapore's aged"; last Friday).
But given the general paucity of nursing home visitors, I do not think it will make a big difference to the patients whether they stay in a nursing home here or in Johor Baru in terms of the number of visitors they receive.
Why are nursing homes so under-visited? It is a sad reflection of our society that we are too busy or apathetic to bother with our frail elderly relatives.
Chan Yeow Chuan
Tallying the number of visits a week made by all visitors, I notice that the weekly average is a paltry figure of about one visitor per patient.
This average figure masks the fact that some patients get visitors almost daily, while others do not get visitors at all.
This is despite the fact that women of my grandmother's age would typically have at least one child and are likely to have grandchildren.
I welcome Mr Leong Kok Seng's call to reduce the cost of nursing homes here ("Make it easier to care for Singapore's aged"; last Friday).
But given the general paucity of nursing home visitors, I do not think it will make a big difference to the patients whether they stay in a nursing home here or in Johor Baru in terms of the number of visitors they receive.
Why are nursing homes so under-visited? It is a sad reflection of our society that we are too busy or apathetic to bother with our frail elderly relatives.
Chan Yeow Chuan
