Family of elderly woman in Regina hospital says she has not been bathed in 2 weeks

Marianne Selinger is disappointed with the care her 94-year-old grandmother has been receiving in the Regina General Hospital.

Selingersaid hergrandmother has not received a bath from staff during the two weeks that she has been in hospital.

"I've been going almost every day when I'm done work," Selingersaid.

"It was last Friday that my uncle and I were talking about it. He actually went out and spoke to a nurse and said, 'Can you bath my mom today?'"

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The nurse said that they would put it in the books for the next day but it didn't happen, according to Selinger.

"I asked her last night, I said Grandma didn't you get a bath yet? And she goes 'no, don't worry about it. I'm bathing myself in the sink.' That's when I was done," Selingersaid.

"I finally decided to contact the patient advocate and they said I couldn't do a lot without having my grandmother's consent."

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She said her grandmother iswaiting to move torespite care anddoesn't want to file a formal complaintbecause she doesn't want to upset anyone. However, Selingeris concerned other people are not being bathed, in addition to her grandmother.

"It hasbeen two weeks since she hashad a bath in the hospital and it's been 18 days since she hasn'thad a bath all together," Selinger said.

Health region says there are safety checks

TheRegina Qu'Appelle Health Region is unable to comment on the patient in question, butsaidthey have regulations in place to make sure that all patients are properly cared for.

Lori Garchinskiis the executive director of critical care, and cardio sciences.

"As part of our documentation standards, we do assessments every 12 hours and part ofthatassessmentarecomponents of personalhygieneand care that areincorporated into the work that the nurses are expected to comment on," she said.

"Most definitely there can be patients that have independent care. In a lot of our medicine units we have seniors, where our goal is to maintain the mobility that they came into the hospital with. So if patients are providing their care, that would be included on the chart."

Garchinski alsosaid that patients and their relatives could file any complaints or concerns through the patient advocate.