A legislator yesterday called for stricter nursing home regulations after family members of a senior citizen staying at a Tainan County nursing home accused the home of severe neglect.
The victim's daughter, surnamed Lin, said her mother started staying at the nursing home in February of last year.
According to the nursing home contract, patients are to be bathed, helped to exercise and cared for full-time, Lin said.
PHOTO: CHEN TSE-MING, TAIPEI TIMES
However, Lin said her mother had only spent two months in the nursing home when family members discovered that she had bruises, bedsores and bone fractures.
Lin's mother also suffered a stroke while in the home, losing the ability to speak and the use of her arms, yet staff at the home did not notice for days, Lin charged.
"A foreign worker there tried to tell the staff that something was wrong with my mother, but they told her to `keep quiet' and said that she didn't understand the situation," Lin said.
She said that the family was not satisfied with the nursing home's handling of the case, and that two meetings with the nursing home have not yielded any conclusion.
Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Huang Wei-cher (
This particular nursing home had in fact received top ratings from the Ministry of the Interior (MOI) and a civic group, Huang said.
Lin said the family had originally chosen the nursing home because of its high rating.
Better regulations need to be made for these homes to ensure that senior citizens are taken care of, he added.
A Department of Health (DOH) official said that nursing homes are for senior patients who do not need immediate medical attention.
While there is currently no regulation requiring nursing homes to hire full-time medical personnel, he said, they should at least have doctors who can conduct periodic checkups and nurses to provide long-term care, he added.
Chen Shu-chuen (
The ministry only conducts inspections every three years to evaluate nursing homes, Chen said.
The Tainan County government is currently looking into the case and has not yet made a decision on the matter, she said.
Chen said that the ministry will urge local governments to conduct stricter inspections of nursing homes.
Yangmingshan National Park authorities yesterday urged visitors to respect public spaces and obey the law after a couple was caught on a camera livestream having sex at the park’s Qingtiangang (擎天崗) earlier in the day. The Shilin Police Precinct in Taipei said it has identified a suspect and his vehicle registration number, and would summon him for questioning. The case would be handled in accordance with public indecency charges, it added. The couple entered the park at about 11pm on Thursday and began fooling around by 1am yesterday, the police said, adding that the two were unaware of the park’s all-day live
A former soldier and an active-duty army officer were yesterday indicted for allegedly selling classified military training materials to a Chinese intelligence operative for a total of NT$79,440. The Taipei District Prosecutors’ Office indicted Chen Tai-yin (陳泰尹) and Lee Chun-ta (李俊達) for contravening the National Security Act (國家安全法) and the Anti-Corruption Act (貪污治罪條例). Chen left the military in September 2013 after serving alongside then-staff sergeant Lee, now an army lieutenant, at the 21st Artillery Command of the army’s Sixth Corps from 2011 to 2013, according to the indictment. Chen met a Chinese intelligence operative identified as “Wang” (王) through a friend in November
Minister of Digital Affairs Lin Yi-ching (林宜敬) yesterday cited regulatory issues and national security concerns as an expert said that Taiwan is among the few Asian regions without Starlink. Lin made the remarks on Facebook after funP Innovation Group chief executive officer Nathan Chiu (邱繼弘) on Friday said Taiwan and four other countries in Asia — China, North Korea, Afghanistan and Syria — have no access to Starlink. Starlink has become available in 166 countries worldwide, including Ukraine, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam, in the six years since it became commercial, he said. While China and North Korea block Starlink, Syria is not
The Grand Hotel Taipei has rejected media reports claiming that the hotel had prevented CBS from broadcasting coverage of the Beijing summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) on its premises. Media reports alleging that the hotel owner, dissatisfied with CBS’s coverage, prohibited the network from broadcasting political content on the hotel premises, are not true, the hotel said in a statement issued last night. The reports were “inconsistent with how the hotel actually handled the matter,” it said. The hotel said it received a refund request from a
RSS