9.4. Social care institutions
The building was not barrier-free, and its accessibility could not be ensured in the future, either, due to certain regulations pertaining to listed
monuments. I pointed out that the buildings in which the Institution operated were not suited to the placement of 300 residents. The practicality of
using a castle as a retirement home as such is generally questionable. In my
view, the above-mentioned problem could be solved through the process
of de-institutionalisation.
The big castle building had two three-bed, four four-bed, one six-bed, two
eight-bed, one nine-bed, one eleven-bed and one twelve-bed rooms on the
ground floor. On the first floor, residents lived in five four-bed, two five-bed,
two six-bed, three seven-bed, one ten-bed, one twelve-bed and one thirteenbed rooms. There was no lift in the two-storey building. On the ground floor
of the nursing unit, there were altogether 128 residents living with dementia,
physical disabilities, or confined to bed in six two-bed, ten three-bed, two
four-bed, four five-bed, three six-bed, two seven-bed, two eight-bed and one
nine-bed rooms. There was also a room for the isolation of one or two persons with infectious diseases. Apart from that, there was a dining room, as
well as three rooms for registered partners in the building. The residential
rooms of the Institution did not provide 6 m2 of living space per resident,172
bearing in mind that in many cases, there were 5, 6, 7, 8, and even 9, 10, 11 or
12 beds crammed into a single room. I requested that the head of the Institution structure the distribution of the rooms in a way that each resident would
be ensured 6 m2 of personal living space as prescribed by law, and that there
would be maximum four residents living in the same room.
Three rooms of the nursing unit were occupied by residents living in
a registered partnership. Due to the lack of a conjugal room, the circumstances were not ensured for intimate relations among other residents.
I drew the head of the Institution’s attention to the fact that residents not
engaged in a registered partnership must also be ensured proper circumstances for their intimate relations.
The Institution did not employ a full-time physician. Medical treatment
for the residents was provided by a physician engaged by the Institution, in
addition to his/her duties as a general practitioner. Several residents were affected by cardiovascular diseases and some of them had cancer. The residents’
medical history also included some cases of heart surgery and heart attack.
Typical conditions included diabetes, increased cholesterol, osteoporosis, as
well as gallstones, gastro-intestinal disorders and hypertension. At the time
of the visit, one person was isolated due to a contagious infection caused by
172
See Section 41(4)a) of Decree 1/2000 (I. 7.) of the Ministry of Social and Family Affairs on
the professional duties of social institutions providing personal care and on the conditions
of their operation (hereinafter the “MoSFA Decree”).
83
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