The Age:

Unblessed are the meek, for they shall get nothing

I read with dismay your story about the elderly in Victoria's nursing homes who are hungry and malnourished, and even dying prematurely for lack of proper care ('Scandal of elderly who go hungry', 4/12).

However, the sad truth is - and we know this from the enlightened position of a modern-day, free-market economy - that these old people simply weren't competitive enough during their working lives.

They didn't invest wisely, didn't save enough money and didn't work long enough hours. They were, obviously, also too dependent on state handouts, expecting to be looked after when their working lives were at an end.

Ultimately, these unfortunate individuals failed in their patriotic duty to provide for themselves, and so they can have nobody but themselves to blame.

The fact is, for Australia to remain competitive in the global market, we cannot afford to subsidise weakness and infirmity. We must overcome the temptation to be distracted by stragglers and the faint-hearted.

Indeed, we must fortify ourselves against all compassion and sentimentality if we are to fulfil our neo-Liberal national destiny and establish the total dominion of the free market on Australian soil.

DON SIMPSON, Richmond

A strange amnesia

If those at the beginning of life were treated with the same disregard as frail older people, there would be a huge community outcry (4/12). Yet the vulnerability of those at the end of life is often just as great.

Many old people are bedridden, unable to communicate their needs and unable to eat or drink without assistance.

It is a strange phenomenon that - at a time when most of us can expect to become old and experience some level of disability - there is such community amnesia about aged care.

There are other unreported scandals: many aged-care facilities have dangerously low staffing levels; the aged-care workforce is undervalued and low-paid, and often unskilled; the accreditation and monitoring systems are bureaucratic, unworkable and lack transparency; hospitals, to free up expensive acute-care beds, put enormous, often unethical, pressure on vulnerable family members to find an aged-care place.

LINDA SPARROW, Brighton

For too long, too many homes, to ensure profits are maximised, have been exploiting their inmates and supplying only token meals.

Last year, when my mother died at 91, I thanked the home in which she had lived, saying that I had only one complaint: my mother, bright and alert up to her death, regularly complained about the food. It seems that the cook's budget was rarely sufficient to allow the provision of three adequate meals a day.

Neither Mum nor I considered three sausage rolls asufficient evening meal. My mother once told management that "today's evening meal was not fit enough for a dog".

We were able to afford better-than-usual accommodation for her by selling her house. The fee of $1500 per month ought to have guaranteed all inmates three tasty and nutritious meals each day. God help those who have only their pension and must put up with the very worst of these institutions.

The Government should make unannounced raids to sample food and ensure profitis not put before nutrition.

KEVIN HARTSHORNE, Mount Evelyn

Having worked in private aged care for 22 years, I find your emotive hyperbole disheartening. Advanced-age and/or demented residents are often able to eat only quite small amounts.

I suggest you investigate the "palliative approach". Prior to life's end, the body gradually resists dietary intake as the need for palliative care approaches. This is a natural process.

The strict government-accreditation system should have addressed substandard provision of care to our aged.

BARBARA BRITTON, Blackburn North

Your shocking headline is another blow to an industrythat is doing a fantastic job. Yes, elderly people who are very ill and dependent may not be as well nourished as their healthier counterparts. The article explains how that might be linked to poor access to dental care.

It targets the dollars nursing homes spend on food, but its statistics do not match the ones I have on the industry. What it does not explain is that loss of weight and poor nutrition are often an unavoidable part of the disease process. Aged-care homes in Victoria deserve better than sensationalist journalism.

MEIGAN LEFEBURE Aged Care Association, East Malvern

I'm surprised in your editorial 'In a state of plenty, the old are starving' (4/12) by the words "it is shameful that so little attention has been paid to the problem".

Barely 12 months ago, Mark Latham took to the election a gold health-care card (presumably including free dental care) to everyone over 75 - and he lost.

It seems the electorate agree that such generosity to the elderly is "unsustainable". It is shameful, but attention has been paid to the problem - and the voters turned down the opportunity to rectify it.

ROGER GOTCH, Scoresby

Prime Minister John Howard, with the help of then Victorian premier Jeff Kennett, closed the free dental programs.

I realise that this is your government, with that Liberal stalwart Ron Walker sitting on your board, but please don't become like that other rag in Melbourne. I am afraid your paper is going too far to the right. (I remain a subscriber - for the moment.)

BILL CHAMBERLAIN, Noble Park