Geriatric hospitals: How they could make a difference   

If you have elderly relatives in your family, you can easily understand how difficult it is to get them treated properly once you take them to a hospital. 

Complete convalescence is quite rare in old age and on top of it, once you take an elderly family member to the hospital, it does not end there. Usually there are countless trips to different hospitals until a final treatment is available. 

It is because no hospital in the country actually provides a one-stop solution for all kinds of geriatric health complications. 

"That is no country for old men//Whatever is begotten, born, and dies//An aged man is but a paltry thing" – these are some of the lines taken from Irish poet W B Yeats' seminal poem 'Sailing to Byzantium'. 

Yeats, in this poem written in 1626 and inspired by the zeitgeist of the then Irish society, portrays the agony and afflictions associated with old age. 

Despite the fact that it was written in a different setting, it is universally true that by the time someone reaches old age, it gets all the more difficult to roll with the punches and you suddenly start to feel the chill wind of life. 

The crux of this suffering is deteriorating health conditions, accompanied by other kinds of comorbidities. 

When an old person goes to the hospital to avail health services, it gets more evident that this country has no place for an ageing population. I have experienced it very closely when my father-in-law became sick. 

As he had diabetes, he was first admitted to Birdem General Hospital. After controlling his sugar level, he was diagnosed with heart problems. Doctors suggested we take him to the National Heart Foundation Hospital in Mirpur. Though his situation was critical, he was moved to another hospital. 

If he had kidney issues, then we probably had to take him to another hospital specialising in kidney problems. This is a huge problem within our health system, making treatment difficult for the elderly population. 

After a certain age, especially after retirement, people tend to get alienated from family, rarely find any extended kin to turn to for assistance, start suffering from different health complications, and feel a bit on edge psychologically as they develop a feeling that they are now expendable for the family. 

Hospital visits only add more woes to their already existing problems as there are no dedicated geriatric hospitals or ones which function as one-stop centres where all their problems will be solved. For different complications, you have to visit different hospitals.

In a city where around 3.2 million working hours are wasted every day due to traffic congestion, it is tough to run from one hospital to another for treatment purposes. It is extremely inconvenient for older patients and their family members. 

As a society, we need to be more thoughtful of the health-related necessities of our elderly population. The way out could be setting up geriatric hospitals where all kinds of treatments will be available for the elderly.     

The initial report of 'Population and Housing Census 2022' says that the number of people above 60 years of age in the country is 15.3 million, which is almost 9.28% of the total population. As the average life expectancy of people in the country is increasing, the number of elderly people is also increasing. 

According to estimates by the United Nations Population Fund, the number of elderly people will reach 20 million (2 crore) by the years 2025 or 2026. In 2050, that number will be 4.5 crore, which will be around 21% of the then population.       

We cannot turn a blind eye to the sufferings and needs of such a huge part of the population. The government must take initiatives to do something in this regard so that elderly people can live out the final days of their lives peacefully. 

Moreover, private investments must be encouraged so that individuals feel inspired to invest in specialised hospitals for the geriatrics only where they will be able to get all their ailments treated without being dragged from pillar to post.   

In Yeats' words, old people are monuments of unageing intellect. It means we have a lot to learn and gather from them. So, instead of leaving them unattended, the state and other stakeholders need to seriously consider the idea of setting up geriatric hospitals so that we can take the edge off the pain elderly people have to endure to some extent.  

Md Morshedul Alam Mohabat is a philomath who likes to delve deeper into the human psyche with a view to exploring the factors that influence it. 

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.