When abuse is the only word for care of the elderly

Dan Buckley on how long-term neglect has eroded care for our vulnerable senior citizens.

THE outside of the grey, Victorian hospital was dark and foreboding, like something out of a badly made 1950s Gothic horror movie. Despite meagre attempts to beautify the grounds with flowers and shrubs, there was no denying that this was a grim and cheerless place.

Inside, that sorry facade was mirrored by murky pea-green walls, a well-trodden and cracked tiled floor and threadbare curtains dividing the beds in the public ward.