The first episode of Guarding Our Parents (BBC Two) was subtitled “Safe from Harm”. Given that it showed hospital to be as considerably a result in of illness as its cure, it was a grim misnomer. The “trick”, explained a consultant, was to get elderly sufferers properly sufficient to encounter independent residing prior to they contracted a hospital infection.
With pensioners occupying two-thirds of hospital beds, this three-part series is a timely attempt to examine the consequences of our ageing population. Final night’s episode centered on three patients at Birmingham’s Heartlands Hospital, keen to be anywhere else, but bedridden following falls.
Depressing does not cover it. Setting the tone for the hour, the opening sequence noticed an elderly girl tugging at her unkempt hair. “I’m going to give in, I am,” she said, staring forlornly into the middle distance.
Bleakest of all was the story of Henry Robinson. Cameras showed the 82-yr-old speedily recovering soon after a fall, only to contract pneumonia in his hospital bed. Shortly afterwards, a plainly quite sick Mr Robinson gasped even though on an oxygen mask ahead of nurses began screaming for assist with chest compressions. The curtains have been drawn, and Mr Robinson died 3 days later on.
Protecting Our Dad and mom would have been unbearable to observe have been it not for Betty Williams. Her indomitable spirit leavened the movie, as she ticked off a nurse who wobbled precariously when stooping down to get her food purchase: “Don’t you fall,” she insisted, “We’ve acquired everyone falling about right here.”
Go through: Pensioners to be offered advice on how lengthy they will live
The film was so compelling simply because of the producers’ choice to stick to each patient not only in hospital but for the duration of their recuperation, as they moved into care residences or started to be visited by social staff at home. Interviews with their youngsters had been especially moving, as they admitted how much they struggled to adjust to their parents’ decline and, in 1 situation, instructed their father how to use a commode.
Despite the fact that this was an absorbing piece of tv, I would have liked to have observed some examination. It would have been interesting to understand not only that care residences can be cripplingly costly but when and why this grew to become this kind of an situation. Neither did the present confront the main issue facing our ageing population: how a smaller sized base of staff will pay for their parents’ ever longer retirements. If the remaining two episodes tackle that topic, it will be braver.
Read: HOW CAN WE Safeguard THE ELDERLY?
Protecting our Mothers and fathers, BBC Two, review: "compelling nevertheless bleak"
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