While healthcare workers protest in The Hague, neighbors and relatives will take over their work in elderly care on Tuesday. The sector warns: if the minister cuts spending, the solution is to ask too many informal carers.
Minie Ringenier pours a cup of tea for her mother, while she has a chat with another resident. Her sister Elma meanwhile gives the apple syrup to yet another lady in the department. All residents of this residential group in the Jannes van der Sleedenhuis in Hoogeveen have dementia and often other problems.
Enough eyes and hands
“It is a matter of paying attention, to everyone, all the time,” says healthcare worker Tatiana. “There are several people with an increased risk of falling and some residents need constant attention.” She is convinced that the work in this department is only possible if there are enough eyes to keep an eye on the residents and hands to carry out the care work.
This Tuesday, Tatiana is the only employee present in the department. All her colleagues are in The Hague to call on the House of Representatives to reverse the cuts that Minister Conny Helder (Long-term Care) is planning to implement in elderly care. According to Roeli Mossel, director of the Northern Netherlands Cooperative of Care Organizations (NNCZ), the plans amount to an average reduction of 8 percent of the budgets of care organizations.
“We can no longer do a lot,” says Heidy Haandrikman, manager in the Jannes van der Sleedenhuis. “Walking with residents, pouring coffee, the restaurant: those are things that will be cut.” To give as many colleagues as possible the opportunity to show their support in The Hague – and also to show what the consequences are – the Janny van der Sleedenhuis has asked family members and local residents to take over the work for a day.
‘We are not allowed to change the bed’
“Let’s do it, I immediately thought”, says Elma Ringenier. “It is very good that attention is being paid to this.” She and her sister Minie themselves work in home care: just as well a sector in which the human dimension is often lost due to the pursuit of efficiency. “For example, we are not allowed to change the bed,” says Minie. “Caregivers should do that. But what if people no longer have their own network? That is the practice we encounter. Loneliness is a big problem.”
The minister expects a lot from innovations that will make care for the elderly cheaper. But much of the work will really have to be done by human hands, says Elma. “That is not recognised. That’s why I really think that our children, when they get old and need help, are the pisang.”