My grandma have been staying in this nursing home bout 1.5 years ago after a bad fall at home. Let’s name the nursing home as NH-A.
During admission, the admin in-charge of my grandma’s case wasn’t exactly very pleasant to deal with. Let’s call him P.
1.5 years ago, government gave a subsidy of 50% (75% now!) to most nursing home and my grandma is entitled to it. Her bill monthly came out to be S$535.00. Every month we fork out cash and pay it directly to the nursing home. We paid S$535.00 monthly base on the same amount reflected on the invoice mailed to us.
But everytime when we pay them cash at the admin counter, they will hand us a hand written receipt that states S$600.00 instead. We have no idea why. We asked P and all he says is, oh, the remaining S$75.00 was subsidized from the nursing home fund. At this point of time, we were more then grateful.
Came a few months back, my grandma was hospitalised @ SGH and I have no idea why the hospital asked to look at her bank book. Is it right that anyone can request to look at something so private and personal? Anyway I think my auntie still went ahead and produce my grandma’s bank book to SGH. No happened when she was still in hospital.
After she was discharged from SGH, we received a phonecall from P stating that he FOUND out that my grandma still has 2k in her saving account and now requesting that she contribute part of the money to the nursing home as to “COMPENSATE” the S$75.00 that the nursing home have been subsidying her for the past few months.
At this point of time, I am fucking boiling.
– 1st, who the fuck gave you the right to find out how much my grandma has in her account?
– 2nd, this 2k is my grandma’s saving. She is old and no one can predict what will happen next. We never touch a single cent of hers when she was hospitalised or during her stay in the nursing home. What gave P the right to use the money in my grandma’s account?!
– 3rd, my mum rebutted saying the 2k is my grandma’s “coffin money” (棺材本). Guess what P says? “Funeral doesn’t cost so much. Don’t believe just call the undertaker and ask.” FUCK YOU OKIE? My grandma is still alive and kicking and you want me to call the undertaker and ask about the cost of funeral?!
To avoid making things difficult for my grandma (you never know what evil people in the nursing home will do to my grandma!) my mum decided to just pay S$600.00 out from her pocket, not wanting to touch anything from my grandma’s account.
The very 1st month we decided to pay them S$600.00, the invoice we received in mail still state S$525.00 and the hand written receipt that they hand to us after we make payment states S$600.00. Confusing? I find it fishy.
3 months on and the amount stated in the invoice is still S$525.00. My Dad started to feel suspicious about where (or WHO?) the S$75.00 will eventually go to.
We called up P and asked him why is this happening? If you insist us to pay the home S$600.00, we expect the same amount to reflect on the OFFICIAL printed invoice and not only on the hand written receipt. When it comes to monetary matters, black and white envidence is important. What if the nursing home, or more likely, P decided to request us to pay more in future?
P could’nt come out with any proper explaination other than “it’s like that“. After pressing him a few times more, he says okie, just stick to S$525.00 every month. WTF? You mean if I wanna pay $200 also can?!
Now, the problem is not about the difference of $75.00. S$75.00 is nothing compare to the well-being of my grandma. But this P guy obviously is fishy. If this increase of payment is an official request from the nursing home, we expect to see an official letter/invoice. At least we know what we paid go directly to the welfare of my grandma. But now I suspect it goes into the pocket of P.
I don’t care how you should reflect the S$75.00 on the official printed invoice that you mail to us. Be it donation, or simply just miscellaneous, as long as the money really did went into the proper home fund, I won’t pursue the matter. But if it goes into the pocket of greedy evil people, I will make sure this matter will blow up in your face.
I hope the nursing home is not promoting their staff to do unscrupulous things like these. I won’t state the full name of the nursing home and P until the matter is investigated properly. And hopefully there are no other victims not standing up for themselves.
Don’t trust anyone so easily. Especially those who appear sincere in the name of religion and charity organisation. There are too many black sheeps in this world.
