There are many examples of the inhumane treatment of elderly people condemned to live in nursing homes. And as the Ombudswoman states in her 2023 report, there is no significant progress in improving the quality of care for the elderly, so many even lose their lives to neglect and carelessness.

“The hospital doctor calls my mum and says that grandad came out of the nursing home in a serious condition and that the findings show that he was systematically neglected, he had so little urine that it was not possible to get reliable results from a physical and chemical examination. My grandfather arrived at the hospital, thirsty and hungry, with a severely impaired general condition. He died as a result of all this,” reads one of the appalling reports on treatment in nursing homes received by the Ombudswoman’s Office last year and published by the news website Novi list.

Poor quality of food

“I am writing to you in the hope that someone from the higher authorities will react, because the home is under the protection of the town and village elders, and they will not be stopped in any way. First of all, there are no conditions for less mobile patients, because the home has two floors and an attic, and there is no lift or any other way for the elderly to go downstairs to socialise, so they have to rot in their rooms. Also, the home is only staffed by one or, rarely, two nurses. There are no carers. The residents lie wet and untidy in their beds. Mistreatment by the staff is also not unusual. The food is of poor quality, their blood sugar and blood pressure are not measured. So they are just grabbing money from desperate families and not doing their job. The residents are locked in their rooms, isolated, wet and doomed to a quick death as soon as they get there. Please do something because their behaviour is disgusting,” a family member of one of the patients urged the ombudswoman.

Around 1,000 euros or more should be budgeted for accommodation in a nursing home, which most pensioners cannot afford

The Ombudswoman’s Office forwards such reports to the Inspectorate of the Ministry of Labour, Pension System, Family and Social Policy and also makes unannounced visits to the homes for which it has received a report. In most cases, the inspection confirms the allegations.

For example, in one nursing home, the inspection found that the rooms are damp, there is no possibility of natural ventilation and, as the windows look into the private area of the owner of the home, the blinds in the rooms are lowered so that the occupants sit in the dark. In homes for Alzheimer’s patients, residents are often subjected to neglect, restraint and confinement.

Inhuman conditions

In a private nursing home in the city of Zagreb, coercive measures such as tying up patients were found to be in breach of the law, which states that such a measure must be ordered and supervised by a psychiatrist. At the same time, the inspectors found that the home employs a nurse, an unlicensed pensioner, who looks after the health of 59 users at two locations and works four hours a day.

In the same home, there are no curtains in the bedrooms, the blinds do not work and the beds are missing sheets and pillowcases. Another example: In a home that caters for diabetics, there are no special diabetic menus and the bedrooms, bathrooms and sanitary facilities have no alarms linked to the duty room. The home said it had no money and asked for an extension of time to resolve the problem.

Illegal nursing homes are still being run and are only discovered after they are reported. An anonymous report revealed that users at the facility in Split-Dalmatia County are locked in 24 hours a day without a nurse or carer and receive the same food for five days. The inspection revealed that the service is provided without a licence and to 13 elderly and infirm people.

As early as 2022, the ombudswoman made a recommendation to the responsible ministry to publish and regularly update information on authorised homes, but without result

“At the same time, the illegal provider of accommodation services advertises on its modern website as a ‘home for the elderly and infirm with a beautiful view of the sea’, from which one can in no way conclude that it does not have a licence for its work,” warns Ombudswoman Tena Simonovic-Einwalter, she adds that the stricter penalties for misdemeanours under the new Social Welfare Act do not apply if the statute of limitations applies after the indictment, as in the case of an illegal home in Zadar County that continued to operate despite the inspector’s decision.

Problems with illegal nursing homes

A particular problem is that users and family members cannot check whether they are dealing with an illegal provider. As early as 2022, the ombudswoman made a recommendation to the responsible ministry to publish and regularly update information on authorised homes, but without result.

The controls carried out by the local self-government units on their territory are not standardised. For example, Zagreb County carries out inspections in all homes, Primorje-Gorski Kotar County only in the homes of which it is the founder, and Koprivnica-Krizevci County only in the riskiest homes. In Istria County, irregularities were found in all accommodation providers, but not in Karlovac County. There were no inspections at all in Lika-Senj and Bjelovar-Bilogora counties until July 2023.

According to the latest data, 11,383 users live in three state and 45 decentralised homes for the elderly and infirm, and 378 family homes also provide accommodation. Prices for accommodation are rising, which is justified by the increase in energy and food prices. For example, they have risen by almost 30 per cent in the home in Split. Around 1,000 euros or more should be budgeted for accommodation in a nursing home, which most pensioners cannot afford from their pension, warns the ombudswoman.