A Malaysian doctor has sparked widespread debate after revealing that some families are misusing hospitals as “temporary elderly care centres”, not because their parents are seriously ill, but simply so they can go out freely without responsibility.
In a frustrated Threads post, the doctor said hospitals are increasingly being treated like places where people can “check in” their elderly parents for convenience, with medical staff unfairly reduced to the role of babysitters.
Shockingly common behaviour
According to him, this behaviour has become shockingly common, and some family members even insist that their parents remain warded despite being medically fit for discharge.
Other nurse in the comment recalled moments where children casually asked if their parents could “stay a few more days,” as though the hospital were a hotel.
To him, such requests were not just inappropriate, but deeply troubling, as they showed how far some have distanced themselves from their responsibilities.
The doctor stressed that this issue is not about the difficulty of caring for patients.
Instead, it is about family members who attempt to dump their responsibilities by using the hospital as a convenient storage place. He reminded the public that hospitals exist to save lives, not to provide an escape route for those unwilling to look after their ageing parents.
Netizens’ comment
The post quickly went viral, drawing strong reactions from healthcare workers and netizens who said they had witnessed similar situations.
“People actually do this, believe it or not. Especially during festive seasons. Parents who’ve been sick for a long time get dumped at the hospital because the children don’t want to look after them and want to go celebrate. If the body already has holes from bed sores, of course they’ll have to be admitted, right? But when they’re finally ready for discharge and the staff call them to pick up their parents, suddenly everyone goes silent and refuses to answer the phone.”
