I obtained a copy of your excellent magazine whilst on a recent UK visit from my home in Spain. My husband spent 27 days in our local Spanish hospital last year, so I thought I would share our experience with your readers.  

 

 

I wish to tell you that here, it is expected and indeed, compulsory, for families and friends to look after the personal care of relatives in hospital ALL DAY AND ALL NIGHT FOR AS LONG AS THE PATIENT IS IN HOSPITAL.

 

There is no provision given by nurses for assistance with feeding or washing, unless the patient is requiring specialised looking after following surgery.

 

Nurses are solely for nursing and care/attention after surgical procedures.

 

For general purposes, one could literally starve to death here, as meals are supplied in plastic trays with lids on and nobody can see if the food is eaten or not, and then the catering staff simply take away the trays after a set time without questions. The trays are placed at the foot of the beds on a table out of the patient's reach. If the patient is asleep, they are not woken or told that food has arrived. 

 

The family will take care of all laundry except clean bedding which is provided by the hospital. 

 

I have been told by an English lady at another hospital that she heard someone crying at mealtimes and eventually went out into the corridor to investigate.

 

She discovered a poor old man who was alone in a room following a stroke. He was unable to feed himself and was hungry and thirsty. He couldn't reach the buzzer to alert anyone to his plight. This lady fed him at each mealtime and ensured that he was given enough to drink between whilst during her stay and arranged for some help after she left. 

 

If one is an ex-pat living here without the support/back up of a large family and circle of friends, it can be very difficult to provide the necessary attention.

 

Spanish families expect to live in the room with their relatives, 24/7, and sleep there in a lounge chair or truckle bed. Someone will move in to do their 'spell' of care and then they will be relieved by someone else on a rota system. 

 

When an English person is in hospital alone, the Spanish ask them where their family is, and why has nobody come to help them? Sometimes they will offer to assist the foreigners but they obviously don't understand why the patient has been 'abandoned' (as they see it), without any help. 

 

Having said all this, the health care is excellent here and there are associations set up by mostly English speaking volunteers to give limited assistance but on the whole, it is a completely different system and quite difficult to adjust to.

 

The English seem to expect/demand that the nursing staff give them what they would expect in the UK, but quite rightly, the Spanish say, 'You're in our country now, so adjust. If you need care in hospital and you don't have anyone to provide it, you will have to pay for someone to provide it for you.'

 

So be warned - this could be the way things will be developing for the United Kingdom if this slippery slope is not knocked on the head, sooner rather than later! 

 

Mrs Sally Realey

Alicante

Spain