Idea 356 of 500. Cluster 17: Health, care and the parents of Sri Lankans abroad
Care at home at the end of life, with a doctor and a nurse, which most families do alone
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans abroad have parents at home whom they cannot look after from Melbourne. They will pay, and the money stays.
Every idea in cluster 17 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Approach a doctor and a nurse who already visit patients at home privately and ask whether they would work as a pair for a monthly fee. Then ask the ward sister at the nearest hospital how many families take a very ill relative home with nobody to call. Offer three of those families a month of scheduled visits and a night number at a stated price, and see who takes it.
- Who pays first
- A family bringing a seriously ill parent home, with a child abroad who wants a doctor and a nurse on call rather than a relative left guessing.
- What leaves today
- Families now carry the last months alone or fly relatives home for weeks; a paid home team turns that cost into skilled local work.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. EightWhat It Costs to Go First
Remittances and what it costs the first one to go - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
The institutions already in existence that could carry value back
More from cluster 17
- 341Home-care agencies with trained, vetted carers, booked and paid from abroad
- 342Assisted-living homes for the parents of Sri Lankans abroad, with the standard published and inspected
- 343A daily check-in service: a nurse's visit, a photograph, a message to the child abroad
- 344Medical escort services: a nurse takes the parent to the appointment and reports back
- 345Pharmacy delivery with the prescription managed and the refills tracked
- 346Dementia day-care centres, which hardly exist yet and are needed everywhere
Idea 356 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.