Senior citizens at Hrafnista, Iceland’s largest nursing home, receive a bath once a week or once every other week due to staff shortages, according to a front-page story in Fréttablaðið today.
“This is definitely not decent and I am not sure that modern people, who need to bathe daily, would be okay with such rough conditions as one weekly bath,” Director of Hrafnista Pétur Magnússon told Fréttablaðið.
“This is how the recession is affecting the senior citizens and it is hurtful that society does not treat its elders better. This is food for thought for politicians. Hrafnista, like other nursing homes, should have a service agreement with the State, but it has not been made despite multiple requests over the years. Now just before the New Year, the State postponed such an agreement for another three years.”
Speaking to Fréttablaðið, Valgerður Katrín Jónsdóttir, head of Landssamband eldri borgara, the senior citizens association, said, “Old people cannot threaten to strike and they cannot leave the country, which makes them a minority group easily taken advantage of. They have to deal with many things that most people would consider basic human rights.”
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