Woman slams dying father's treatment at Canberra Hospital

Unhappy daughter: Kambah resident Moira Smith looks at a photo of her father Douglas who died recently. Photo: Rohan Thomson

A dying elderly Canberran received such poor treatment at the Canberra Hospital during his last week of life, he begged his daughter to come and take him away.

Kambah resident Moira Smith said her father wasn't "treated like a person" during his five-day stay at the hospital and, by the end, she was determined he would leave.

She has registered a complaint with the Human Rights Commission over her father's treatment and sent a letter to Health Minister Katy Gallagher.

Ms Smith said she had been looking after her father, who suffered from chronic arthritis, for eight years before he was placed in the Goodwin retirement community in Farrer.

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He was referred to Canberra Hospital in August after being diagnosed with flu and pneumonia which was present in the Goodwin community.

Yet after just a few days in Canberra Hospital, the once-enthusiastic man told his daughter, "It's all meaningless. I just want to die."

"I just cannot get it out of my head. The misery of those last few days and my helplessness to do anything about it," she said.

Ms Smith said when she arrived to check on her father he was sitting in a bare room with a improperly tied gown, without slippers, a toothbrush, a comb, soap, pyjamas or glasses.

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Woman slams dying father's treatment at Canberra Hospital