Nursing home allows only 3 bathroom visits; parliamentarians furious

Parliamentarians are furious about reports that residents of nursing home Grootenhoek in Hellevoetsluis only have three scheduled visits to the bathroom per day. The VVD plans to write a letter to State Secretary Martin van Rijn of Public Health before the day is out, NOS reports.

RTV Rijnmond reported on Tuesday that at least one resident of the nursing home had to sign an agreement on when he will go to the bathroom. His bathroom visits are at 11:00 a.m., 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. According to his family, visiting the bathroom more often than this is very hard for him to do.

VVD parliamentarian told NOS that this is horrible. "You should never think that your parents must first sign a pee contract before they are allowed into the nursing home." He wants Van Rijn to get to the bottom of this immediately. "This ridiculous nursing home behavior must stop today. We do not deal with our elderly like this."

The PVV is also furious. According to parliamentarian Fleur Agema, she visits the bathroom three times before 7:00 a.m. And she isn't elderly or suffering from dementia.

50Plus leader Henk Krol will be asking parliamentary questions on this.

Nursing home Grootenhoek falls under care organization Careyn, which is on the Healthcare Inspectorate's blacklist of poorly performing nursing homes. A spokesperson said to NOS that it is true that individual agreements are made with residents in an effort to reduce the work load, and sometimes it involves bathroom trips. "If it has to change, the client can simply say so", the spokesperson said. 

According to him, some dementia residents are incontinent and use incontinence products, but still "continuously" indicate they want to go to the bathroom. The bathroom agreement may have something to do with that. The spokesperson said that it is not their policy to only allow residents three bathroom visits a day, but can not rule out that this agreement was made with some residents.

Van Rijn already contacted the nursing home to find out what exactly is going on.