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Hong Kong police probe care home for leaving elderly naked in open air
Care home in Tai Po reportedly exposes its residents on a podium before their showers
PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 27 May, 2015, 6:35am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 27 May, 2015, 4:26pm
Danny Mok and Jennifer Ngo
Cambridge Nursing Home in Wan Tau Street, Tai Po
Police launched an investigation into a private home for the elderly in Tai Po after residents were seen queuing naked or half-dressed on an open-air podium before their showers.
Wheelchair-bound male and female residents of Cambridge Nursing Home in Wan Tau Street were stripped by staff members under the skies before they were taken into an indoor shower area, according to footage taken by Chinese-language daily Ming Pao last month. A number of women covered their private parts with their hands.
The care home occupies three storeys of a building and serves elderly people who are physically unfit to take care of themselves.
A woman living in the next block told reporters that for three or four years she had witnessed workers arranging for the elderly to sit on toileting chairs on the podium, with their pants off. Some of the residents sat for two hours without being attended to.
Irene Luk Ngai-ling, co-founder of the home, told reporters yesterday that she was concerned about what the newspaper had reported.
"We are requesting every worker to submit a report," Luk said. "We have been teaching [the staff] for a decade at all meetings, and even require them to make pledges [to treat the residents properly], but those [staff] are really hopeless."
A male worker had been fired, while other related workers had been disciplined, the home said.
The Social Welfare Department said it would give police the relevant details to check if the alleged abuse constituted a crime.
The department is also investigating. Officers may revoke the home's licence if it is found to have violated its tenants' privacy.
A police spokesman said the Tai Po district crime squad was investigating.
Phan Thi Van admitted hitting the resident in court on Wednesday. Photo: Franke Tsang
A caretaker has admitted hitting a wheelchair-bound elderly man in the Tai Po nursing home caught up in an abuse scandal earlier this year.
Phan Thi Van’s attack on Chiu Sau, 76, at the Cambridge Nursing Home last year was able to come to light thanks to Chiu’s 77-year-old friend, Wong Kin, who captured the incident with his smartphone, Sha Tin court heard on Wednesday.
Phan, 55, pleaded guilty to one count of common assault. The Vietnamese national entered the plea after she was read the charge in her native language.
The Cambridge Nursing Home, situated on Wan Tau Street, sparked controversy in May when Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao revealed its staff had been making elderly residents wait naked in common areas for showers. Subsequently, its bid to renew its licence was rejected by the Social Welfare Department.
The Cambridge Nursing Home, situated on Wan Tau Street, sparked controversy when its staff were found to have had been making elderly residents wait naked in common areas for showers.
The court heard that Phan hit Chiu on the head at least twice on a day at the end of last year at the premises on the third floor of Kwong On Building.
Wong, who was watching television at the time, was alerted after he heard Chiu shout: “Don’t hit”.
He got his phone out and recorded the event, the court heard. He passed it on to Chiu’s daughter-in-law after raising the incident in a conversation with her in June this year.
Police, who were later notified, arrested Phan, who told them in an interview that she hit Chiu because she was angry at the old man for spilling juice on himself while eating an orange.
Acting Principal Magistrate Cheang Kei-hong sought a report to study the sustainability of a community service order on Phan, before adjourning sentencing to September 23.
CY Leung blames nursing home abuse on Hong Kong's shortage of land
Chief executive says high rents mean low quality in city's nursing homes
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 28 May, 2015, 11:23am
UPDATED : Friday, 29 May, 2015, 6:46am
Lai Ying-kit and Elizabeth Cheung
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying said he had visited some homes for the elderly in the past and found their service qualities could vary. Photo: K.Y. Cheng
Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying yesterday said the city's shortage of land on which to build was a key culprit in the poor treatment of residents at its homes for the elderly.
Leung made the comments two days after the Chinese-language newspaper Ming Pao reported that residents of the Cambridge Nursing Home in Tai Po were left naked or half-dressed on an open-air podium for up to 90 minutes before staff took them to shower.
"If we had more land, we could provide space to non-profit organisations to offer more elderly home services … the elderly and their children could afford a better service," he told a Legislative Council question-and-answer session yesterday.
While Labour Party lawmaker Dr Fernando Cheung Chiu-hung criticised Leung for failing to introduce an accreditation system to monitor private homes, Leung said the root of the issue was the shortage of land.
"Even with an accreditation system, if the issue over land is not resolved, if home prices and rent remain expensive, elderly people still will not get good services at private facilities," the chief executive said.
He was responding to Cheung's question about the incident at the Cambridge facility, in which residents in wheelchairs were stripped by staff members outdoors before they were taken into an indoor shower area, footage of which Ming Pao recorded last month.
Leung said he was "saddened" by the incident, and had visited some homes for the elderly in the past and found the quality of their services varied.
The protest at the Social Welfare Department. Photo: Jonathan Wong
After the Legco session, Cheung joined a protest outside the Social Welfare Department headquarters in Wan Chai, attended by some 20 mostly elderly people representing 21 concern groups. The protestors called for stricter enforcement of laws governing the operation of homes for the elderly, and a complete review of regulations.
"How ridiculous [Leung's] comment was, comparing the economic conditions in Hong Kong and how we treat the elderly," Cheung said. The incident at Cambridge, he went on, "is surely the shame of Hong Kong."
A representative from the nursing home workers' union dismissed Leung's comment as irrelevant.
"Service quality and land cannot be linked together as such," said Lau Ka-lok, organising secretary for the Community Care and Nursing Home Workers General Union. "Even with ample space, without a good regulatory system in place there will still be cases of elderly abuse."
Cecilla Li Yuen-wah, the department's assistant director for elderly issues, said the government was highly concerned about the incident.
While the licence for the second and third floors of Cambridge Nursing Home will expire on Sunday, Li said an investigation was ongoing. Even after the licence expired, Li said the home could still operate until the director of social welfare decided not to issue a new licence.
The department will look for spaces in other nursing homes to accommodate residents if the Tai Po operator does not receive a new licence.
