Elder abuse at nursing home run by Kim Joon-hee's wife's family... ”Broken fruit, physical restraints” = South Korea

After a series of reports of elderly abuse at a nursing home in Namyangju, Gyeonggi Province, run by the family of the wife of former President Yoon Seok-yeol, the relevant authorities
The investigation uncovered poor conditions, including providing elderly people with rotten fruit as snacks and tying the hands and feet of those unable to make decisions to their beds 24 hours a day.
According to an MBC report on the 29th, it was a nursing assistant working at the facility who filed a public interest report with the National Health Insurance Corporation about the illegal practices, including elderly abuse.
The nursing home, which opened in 2017, is run by the family of Choi Woong-sun, the mother of Kim Gun-hee, the wife of former President Yoon. The president is Kim's brother,
The main executives were relatives, but Choi was in charge of the actual management. Each resident received 375,000 won (about 37,000 yen) per month for food expenses.
However, the food provided was poor: spoiled fruit was provided as snacks, and the juice for the 16 residents on one floor consisted of just seven bananas mixed with water.
Only one 1.5-liter bottle of tomato juice was provided per floor, meaning that each person spent just 100 won (about 10 yen) on snacks.
The gomtang (beef stew soup) served as a meal, not just a snack, had almost no meat or onions, and the wakame soup had no wakame seaweed.
The sanitary conditions were also poor, with food still on the spoon. Last December, an elderly person in his 80s had diarrhea and bloody stool for over 10 days, and was left untreated for nearly three weeks before being admitted to the hospital.
The patient died after being taken to hospital. The daily abuse of the elderly, who were unable to make decisions, was also exposed. The hands and feet of the elderly were tied to their beds 24 hours a day, and the obligation to record the situation was not even observed.
According to the National Health Insurance Corporation's 2021 regular evaluation, the nursing home was ranked the highest in the categories of "protection of the human rights of the elderly," which evaluates abuse and physical restraint, and "excretion management," which includes changing diapers.
The facility was judged to be "insufficient," which is low. In a 2019 inspection in Namyangju, the facility was also found to have misused food expenses and not properly recorded the use of physical restraint belts.
In 2018 and 2021, reports of abuse against residents, including refusal to be taken to hospital, were released and investigations were launched, but in both cases it was concluded that there were no particular problems.
In relation to this, Jeong Jin-sook, a member of the National Assembly's Health and Welfare Committee, said, "There were signs of a problem all along, but they were overlooked and the public interest
"It was only after the report was made that we conducted an on-site investigation. Our response was too late."