The brother of a 76-year-old woman who is allegedly being neglected in her own home by relatives claims that he has been repeatedly ignored when he has tried to report the matter to the authorities.

Mr A told The Royal Gazette that his sibling, who is frail, incontinent and has mild dementia, was being left on her own at home for hours at a time and that he had found her on several occasions lying in a pool of her own urine in bed, dehydrated and hungry.

The senior lives with her son, daughter-in-law and grandchildren, but they are all out of the house at work or school during the day. “The problem is they don’t have no time for Grandma,” her brother claimed.

He said he visited the National Office for Seniors and the Physically Challenged (NOSPC) in September last year because of his concerns about the lack of care being given to her during daylight hours.

But he said that it was almost impossible to get anyone to log his complaint or even call him back. “She just needs some help,” the 55-year-old man said. “I’m at my wit’s end. I don’t know who to even turn to now.”

Mr A, who asked for his sister not to be identified, told this newspaper that he had visited the NOSPC “four, five, six times” and had left his name and number each time, but no one called back.

“It seems like nobody cares; nobody gives me a call,” he said.

“One day I went there and I said, ‘Well, I’ll sit here and wait in the front’. I told them I want to see somebody. I sat there and waited. No one even acknowledged me. I waited there a whole hour.

“I told the receptionist ‘I have got to go’. I was ready to let off fireworks. I said, ‘No, keep your cool, clear your head and go’.”

He added: “I sent an e-mail to the case worker — it was just to get in contact with me — and she never got back in contact with me. It’s not like they don’t know about [my sister].”

Eventually, Mr A said, he managed to reach a case worker on the telephone and she asked him to summarise his concerns but refused a sit-down meeting. Six weeks later, he had heard nothing back.

Mr A, who works full time and has a wife and daughter, said that he personally could not take care of his sister every day but hated to see her being neglected.

“I try and help — a little lunch here and there, take her a little soup,” he said. “But she really needs somebody there three or four hours a day. She has dementia. She is a little bit weak and fragile.

“Sometimes she is home all day by herself and is not getting the proper three square meals a day. An eight-hour stretch by herself every day is a lot. She is in the kind of condition where if she was to fall on the floor, what would she do? I think a friend comes by and helps her with her bath every now and then, but that’s not good enough.”

He said more than anything that he needed advice from those charged with ensuring that seniors on the Island are properly cared for.

“It’s not like I have been at the National Office seeking financial help,” Mr A added. “I am not asking them for any money. I just need advice on what to do. I can’t take her out of the house and drop her down to the hospital to say she needs extended care. They don’t allow you to do that.

“I’m tired of just going back, going back. I have other things to do. Everybody is busy and working in the family. My main gripe is just trying to get the help from the National Office.

“Are they overloaded with work? They may have the qualifications but where is the care? They are either overworked or they don’t really understand the real practical aspects of seniors’ needs.”

Another woman, in a separate case of alleged neglect, told The Royal Gazette that she had approached the NOSPC for help for her 80-year-old mother, who was spending much of her time home alone, with no one to care for her.

“I have been calling these people,” Ms B said. “I have left messages. They went up to see her and said ‘your mom does need this and that’. She has Alzheimer’s. But nothing happened. It’s putting me in tears because my mom is by herself.”

Ms B said of the NOSPC: “Maybe we should shut it down.”

She claimed John Payne, the former Senior Abuse Registrar, was rude to her and would not return her calls.

A second woman, Ms C, who said she approached the NOSPC to get help for her 87-year-old father, said: “I gave John Payne all my information but I didn’t get anywhere. I had one meeting with him and never heard any more.”

Ms C added: “They never called back, so I just felt it was a waste of time trying to get anywhere with them.”

The Royal Gazette asked the Ministry of Health to respond to all the allegations but a spokeswoman said that she could not comment on individual cases.