• Sweden edition

Swedish nursing home introduces coffee rationing

Published: 27 Feb 10 10:23 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Online: http://www.thelocal.se/25248/20100227/

In an attempt to reduce expenditures, a nursing home in the municipality of Timrå in northern Sweden has started to ration the coffee served to its residents.

Patients will in the future be limited to a maximum of two cups of coffee and three decilitres of milk per person per day, reports Sundsvalls Tidning newspaper.

The rationing system is part of a new cost savings program that has long been in the works. Staff are to place bulk orders for a week's worth of food, including bread and butter for breakfast and snacks. The entire menu that the elderly residents can order from is under review.

Nursing home staff have been critical of the measure and have reported that they are ashamed when they can't fulfill a resident's request for more of the rationed products.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

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12:51 February 27, 2010 by calebian22
2 cups of coffee for a Swede? Obviously this policy was decided by a tea drinker.
13:22 February 27, 2010 by Bettyinsweden
This is sad.
13:29 February 27, 2010 by jamesedyrn
What a shameful way to treat the elderly. A sorry commentary on respect for one's elders. What comes around goes around. The bean counter who came up with this plan will become old someday, too. Inhumane treatment should not be rationalized as a cost savings measure.
13:32 February 27, 2010 by tillerman
This is typical. Cut costs on the little things and make people miserable, but ignore the big underlying cost issues that really could produce savings with just a little increase in efficiency.
14:19 February 27, 2010 by Yendor79
2 cups of Coffee!? Thats torturous abuse pure and simple!
14:34 February 27, 2010 by Frobobbles
For a swede, 2 cups of coffeeper day will lead to deadly abstinence symptoms. Maybe that is the secret agenda.
14:57 February 27, 2010 by Renfeh Hguh
Sounds like it would be a pretty crap existence for anyone there. Residents should be given the option to trade their coffee ration for some Nembutal. Probably be a win win solution.
16:19 February 27, 2010 by fridayz
what is next? half a slice of bread every other day?
22:42 February 27, 2010 by dizzymoe33
This is so wrong next they will be charging for a glass of water or rationing out only 4 glasses a day. That is so wrong to treat the elderly this way. :o(
22:42 February 27, 2010 by dwiener
Although I am not myself a Swede, I married a woman who is Swedish on both sides of her family. They are all horrified. I can say, with absolute certainty, that this is what we in the US would call "cruel and unusual punishment." What's next? Waterboarding for old folks who sneak a third cup or an unapproved refill? I thought Sweden was the originator of the "bottomless-refill" concept.
04:38 February 28, 2010 by Micaela
Poor old buggers. Coffee is probably one of the few pleasures they have and now it is rationed. I think this is a terrible way to treat older folk. I am Australian and we drink a lot of tea but we also have a very healthy coffee culture as well. I can imagine the uproar if we tried to ration older people's coffee intake.
06:35 February 28, 2010 by Steggles
That's a disgrace.

I bet the inmates at prisons get better treatment than that.
10:51 February 28, 2010 by Puffin
I think this is really bad that kommuns would try and cut down on basics such as coffee - 3dl (300 ml) of milk also sounds very little especially for elderly women at risk of brittle bones and in need of calcium

There was a kommun a few years ago that tried the same thing in their nursery schools where the children were limited to half a fruit - they were soon forced to back down after a wave of protests.
14:52 February 28, 2010 by Alex Coman
Sadism. Cruelty.

Clearly this is not about money, since there s not much saving...

And that s happened in Sweden.

I expect them to give no oxigen to those in need, and then, after the crisis will pass, to give them helium instead as a compensation.

I think Irak is not such a bad place, after all.
19:21 February 28, 2010 by Protonius
The media should EXPOSE the names of those who made this offensive decision, and FORCE (or should I say "generate pressure to URGE") them to answer for their views in a televised and front-page NATIONAL DEBATE on (a) how these decisions are made and (b) how to treat the elderly who are in old-age homes and are subjected to these horrible rulings.

How, I also must ask, did these idiots, who made this awful coffee-and-milk ruling, ever get such authority? And who gave them that authority, and on what basis was that authority given? And, by the evidence of this awful ruling alone, should those who made that ruling, and or their authority to ever again make such rulings, now be removed?
19:56 February 28, 2010 by Duron1
maybe the ones that made this ruling should stop with thier coffee breaks and see how they feel about it then.

i think this is horrible and cruel
20:00 February 28, 2010 by chowdahead
Who's running this home? Ryanair? For shame.
03:28 March 1, 2010 by Davey-jo
Maybe they'll die of coffee shortage that'll cut costs even more! Is there a Swedish Charles Dickens? If not there should be.
11:23 March 1, 2010 by Uncle
Eeehhh... Why do they get free coffee in there? Is the entire thing sponsored by the government? So where do they pension go then? Just lay in the bank while the family is dreaming of the day to get their hands on it?

Why wouldn't the pensioners be able to pay for coffee, if they have enough money to slowly go to System Bolaget on daily basis?
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