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Spanish prosecutors launch investigation after bodies found inside senior homes
Workers say protocols prohibit them from touching corpses and complain funerary services are taking 24 hours to show up
Miguel González
|
María Sosa Troya
Madrid - 24 mar 2020 - 11:08 CET
The situation inside Spain’s senior homes, which have been hard hit by the coronavirus epidemic, is even more dramatic than previously thought.
On Monday, Defense Minister Margarita Robles revealed that the army’s Emergency Military Unit (UME), which is providing these centers with medical and cleanup assistance, has found “seniors in a state of complete abandonment, when not directly dead in their beds.”
Workers are putting themselves on the line, without resources, without healthcare support, without protective gear
José Manuel Ramírez, president of the Association of Social Services Directors and Managers
Late on Monday, public prosecutors announced an investigation into allegations that there are “elderly people, some of them sick, living in extreme conditions and with poor hygiene” at senior residences. Reports of deceased residents will also be investigated, and prosecutors will determine whether there is any criminal liability.
“We are going to be absolutely implacable and forceful about the treatment that seniors are getting in those residences,” said Robles in statements on TV network Telecinco’s magazine show El Programa de Ana Rosa. After asserting that most centers are treating residents adequately, the minister added that “the weight of the law will fall on those who fail to meet their obligations.”
Overwhelmed
But workers at these centers complain that they are being forced to work in dangerous conditions, without proper equipment, that funerary services are showing up late to collect bodies and that protocols prohibit care home staff from touching them in order to prevent further contagion.
José Manuel Ramírez, president of the Association of Social Services Directors and Managers, called the minister’s statements “unfortunate” and “shameful.” “Workers are putting themselves on the line, without resources, without healthcare support, without protective gear,” he said, asking people not to “criminalize” employees who are acting “like heroes and heroines.”
Senior care homes have been at the center of numerous coronavirus outbreaks in Spain, and managers have long been complaining about a lack of human and material resources to deal with the situation.
Dozens of deaths
The Defense Ministry has confirmed that bodies were found at several senior residences. At many of these centers, some staff members had walked out on the job after coronavirus outbreaks were detected.
Last week it emerged that more than 100 elderly people have died at senior homes across the country, although there are no official government figures. The Health Ministry transfers queries to regional governments, and the Madrid region – the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic – does not provide numbers, either.
Sources at the public agency Imserso, which is in charge of senior and social affairs, said that there may be isolated cases of overwhelmed senior centers, but insisted that most residences are functioning adequately despite a shortage of equipment and personnel, given that many workers have fallen ill themselves or have been quarantined.
Last weekend the army’s UME unit began rendering assistance to overburdened senior homes. The government said that any center that is unable to provide proper care has the obligation to inform regional and central authorities so that the UME can be dispatched to help with disinfection and other duties.
Following protocol
Healthcare sources said that bodies of deceased residents are normally taken to a refrigerated room where they remain in storage until they are collected by funerary services. When the death is thought to be caused by Covid-19, however, protocols prohibit workers from touching the body until funerary personnel show up with protective gear.
But the current overwhelming demand at Madrid’s funerary services means that up to 24 hours are elapsing between the time of death and the time of collection.
Two workers at a residence in the Madrid district of Usera told EL PAÍS that the UME walked in on Sunday morning to disinfect the premises, and found the body of a man who had died the day before. The corpse was still lying in bed in the man’s room. “He was there from early afternoon [on Saturday]. I arrived at night, and at 8am the next morning he was still there,” said José Manuel Martín-Lopi, who works the front desk at the senior home.
A nursing assistant who spoke on condition of anonymity said the body was collected at around 11.30am on Sunday. “Normally the process takes two hours, what with the paperwork and informing the family. In this case it wasn’t so,” said Martín-Lopi. A center spokeswoman said that the body could not be moved because it was thought it could be a source of contagion, and that protocol establishes that they had to wait for the funerary services.
On Monday, the UME also began transferring coronavirus victims from Madrid hospitals to a makeshift morgue that’s been set up at the Palacio del Hielo ice rink, the Defense Ministry has confirmed.
Workers say protocols prohibit them from touching corpses and complain funerary services are taking 24 hours to show up
Miguel González
|
María Sosa Troya
Madrid - 24 mar 2020 - 11:08 CET
The situation inside Spain’s senior homes, which have been hard hit by the coronavirus epidemic, is even more dramatic than previously thought.
On Monday, Defense Minister Margarita Robles revealed that the army’s Emergency Military Unit (UME), which is providing these centers with medical and cleanup assistance, has found “seniors in a state of complete abandonment, when not directly dead in their beds.”
Workers are putting themselves on the line, without resources, without healthcare support, without protective gear
José Manuel Ramírez, president of the Association of Social Services Directors and Managers
Late on Monday, public prosecutors announced an investigation into allegations that there are “elderly people, some of them sick, living in extreme conditions and with poor hygiene” at senior residences. Reports of deceased residents will also be investigated, and prosecutors will determine whether there is any criminal liability.
“We are going to be absolutely implacable and forceful about the treatment that seniors are getting in those residences,” said Robles in statements on TV network Telecinco’s magazine show El Programa de Ana Rosa. After asserting that most centers are treating residents adequately, the minister added that “the weight of the law will fall on those who fail to meet their obligations.”
Overwhelmed
But workers at these centers complain that they are being forced to work in dangerous conditions, without proper equipment, that funerary services are showing up late to collect bodies and that protocols prohibit care home staff from touching them in order to prevent further contagion.
José Manuel Ramírez, president of the Association of Social Services Directors and Managers, called the minister’s statements “unfortunate” and “shameful.” “Workers are putting themselves on the line, without resources, without healthcare support, without protective gear,” he said, asking people not to “criminalize” employees who are acting “like heroes and heroines.”
Senior care homes have been at the center of numerous coronavirus outbreaks in Spain, and managers have long been complaining about a lack of human and material resources to deal with the situation.
Dozens of deaths
The Defense Ministry has confirmed that bodies were found at several senior residences. At many of these centers, some staff members had walked out on the job after coronavirus outbreaks were detected.
Last week it emerged that more than 100 elderly people have died at senior homes across the country, although there are no official government figures. The Health Ministry transfers queries to regional governments, and the Madrid region – the hardest hit by the coronavirus pandemic – does not provide numbers, either.
Sources at the public agency Imserso, which is in charge of senior and social affairs, said that there may be isolated cases of overwhelmed senior centers, but insisted that most residences are functioning adequately despite a shortage of equipment and personnel, given that many workers have fallen ill themselves or have been quarantined.
Last weekend the army’s UME unit began rendering assistance to overburdened senior homes. The government said that any center that is unable to provide proper care has the obligation to inform regional and central authorities so that the UME can be dispatched to help with disinfection and other duties.
Following protocol
Healthcare sources said that bodies of deceased residents are normally taken to a refrigerated room where they remain in storage until they are collected by funerary services. When the death is thought to be caused by Covid-19, however, protocols prohibit workers from touching the body until funerary personnel show up with protective gear.
But the current overwhelming demand at Madrid’s funerary services means that up to 24 hours are elapsing between the time of death and the time of collection.
Two workers at a residence in the Madrid district of Usera told EL PAÍS that the UME walked in on Sunday morning to disinfect the premises, and found the body of a man who had died the day before. The corpse was still lying in bed in the man’s room. “He was there from early afternoon [on Saturday]. I arrived at night, and at 8am the next morning he was still there,” said José Manuel Martín-Lopi, who works the front desk at the senior home.
A nursing assistant who spoke on condition of anonymity said the body was collected at around 11.30am on Sunday. “Normally the process takes two hours, what with the paperwork and informing the family. In this case it wasn’t so,” said Martín-Lopi. A center spokeswoman said that the body could not be moved because it was thought it could be a source of contagion, and that protocol establishes that they had to wait for the funerary services.
On Monday, the UME also began transferring coronavirus victims from Madrid hospitals to a makeshift morgue that’s been set up at the Palacio del Hielo ice rink, the Defense Ministry has confirmed.
20% of the 500 senior citizen homes in Madrid region have had outbreaks. Spain had 463 deaths yesterday alone.
Spain Just Opened a Massive Coronavirus Field Hospital in a Convention Center
“We have yet to receive the impact of the strongest, most damaging wave, which will test our material and moral capacities to the limit, as well as our spirit as a society.”
by Tim Hume
Mar 23 2020, 9:20pm
Only about a month ago, the IFEMA Convention Center in Madrid was swarming with attendees at a cybersecurity trade fair. Now the sprawling complex has been transformed into a massive coronavirus field hospital, as Spanish authorities race to respond to the world’s third-deadliest outbreak.
Hundreds of patients have been transferred since Sunday into makeshift hospital wards set up in the vast halls of the center, located in the northeast part of the Spanish capital. Health officials said Monday that the facility was now equipped to treat 1,300 patients this week — making it the largest hospital in Spain — and that they planned to scale up to 5,500 beds, including 500 for intensive care patients. That would make it one of the largest hospitals in the world.
Madrid is the epicenter of Spain’s outbreak, accounting for almost a third of the country’s 33,089 confirmed cases, and Spain has had more than 2,200 deaths, the world’s third-highest death toll after Italy (5,476) and China (3,153). Madrid's hospitals are being overwhelmed by the rapid influx of COVID-19 patients; video taken Friday night showed coronavirus patients lying on the floors of the emergency department of the city’s Infanta Leonor hospital as they waited for treatment.
The surging demand has forced authorities to take drastic measures to boost capacity. Last week, the government put all of Spain’s private health providers and their facilities under government control, and called up more than 50,000 workers to help the country’s health service, including retired doctors and nurses as well as medical students.
Besides the field hospital at IFEMA, officials in Madrid have converted two hotels into facilities for coronavirus patients with mild symptoms, such as those at the start and end of treatment. Forty hotels in the region have also offered the use of their buildings, and regional authorities say they plan to convert more of them into coronavirus facilities.
Photographs of IFEMA distributed by city authorities showed the first patients being brought in wheelchairs Sunday into the vast convention hall, containing scores of hospital beds laid out in rows.
“The truth is that it’s impressive,” tweeted Fernando Valls, a local doctor.
On Monday, the field hospital discharged its first patient, a man who had been admitted to another hospital on March 14. Isabel Diaz Ayuso, Madrid’s leader, tweeted a video of the masked patient leaving the field hospital to the applause of healthcare workers.
The Madrid-based El Mundo newspaper reported that patients in the makeshift hospital would be divided into four groups — with critical care beds, separate zones for patients with and without risk factors, and a “comfort” zone for less-affected patients. Officials plan to establish a laboratory and pharmacy in the complex, and they're urgently recruiting doctors and nurses, along with non-medical staff like security guards, to staff the new facility.
Antonio Zapatero, director of the field hospital, told El Mundo that he had been struck by the “spectacular, fast and exciting response” of health workers.
“Volunteer doctors and nurses keep coming in to roll up their sleeves and get to work on whatever it takes. The solidarity, dedication and professionalism of these people is absolutely spectacular,” he said.
A nurse at Infanta Leonor hospital, which was overwhelmed by a surge of emergency patients Friday night, told El Mundo that the situation had improved by Sunday, partly as a result of the transfer of cases to Ifema.
Spain has been in lockdown since 14 March, with people allowed out only to buy food or medicine, seek medical help, or travel to work.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned Sunday that the country was yet to experience the peak of the crisis and told citizens to prepare for “very hard days ahead.”
“The worst is yet to come,” he said. “We have yet to receive the impact of the strongest, most damaging wave, which will test our material and moral capacities to the limit, as well as our spirit as a society.”
The Spanish health ministry's emergencies coordinator, Fernando Simon, told a news conference that health workers accounted for more than 10 percent of all confirmed cases adding to the strain on the overburdened hospitals.
“This is a significant problem for our health care system,” he said.
“We have yet to receive the impact of the strongest, most damaging wave, which will test our material and moral capacities to the limit, as well as our spirit as a society.”
by Tim Hume
Mar 23 2020, 9:20pm
Only about a month ago, the IFEMA Convention Center in Madrid was swarming with attendees at a cybersecurity trade fair. Now the sprawling complex has been transformed into a massive coronavirus field hospital, as Spanish authorities race to respond to the world’s third-deadliest outbreak.
Hundreds of patients have been transferred since Sunday into makeshift hospital wards set up in the vast halls of the center, located in the northeast part of the Spanish capital. Health officials said Monday that the facility was now equipped to treat 1,300 patients this week — making it the largest hospital in Spain — and that they planned to scale up to 5,500 beds, including 500 for intensive care patients. That would make it one of the largest hospitals in the world.
Madrid is the epicenter of Spain’s outbreak, accounting for almost a third of the country’s 33,089 confirmed cases, and Spain has had more than 2,200 deaths, the world’s third-highest death toll after Italy (5,476) and China (3,153). Madrid's hospitals are being overwhelmed by the rapid influx of COVID-19 patients; video taken Friday night showed coronavirus patients lying on the floors of the emergency department of the city’s Infanta Leonor hospital as they waited for treatment.
The surging demand has forced authorities to take drastic measures to boost capacity. Last week, the government put all of Spain’s private health providers and their facilities under government control, and called up more than 50,000 workers to help the country’s health service, including retired doctors and nurses as well as medical students.
Besides the field hospital at IFEMA, officials in Madrid have converted two hotels into facilities for coronavirus patients with mild symptoms, such as those at the start and end of treatment. Forty hotels in the region have also offered the use of their buildings, and regional authorities say they plan to convert more of them into coronavirus facilities.
Photographs of IFEMA distributed by city authorities showed the first patients being brought in wheelchairs Sunday into the vast convention hall, containing scores of hospital beds laid out in rows.
“The truth is that it’s impressive,” tweeted Fernando Valls, a local doctor.
On Monday, the field hospital discharged its first patient, a man who had been admitted to another hospital on March 14. Isabel Diaz Ayuso, Madrid’s leader, tweeted a video of the masked patient leaving the field hospital to the applause of healthcare workers.
The Madrid-based El Mundo newspaper reported that patients in the makeshift hospital would be divided into four groups — with critical care beds, separate zones for patients with and without risk factors, and a “comfort” zone for less-affected patients. Officials plan to establish a laboratory and pharmacy in the complex, and they're urgently recruiting doctors and nurses, along with non-medical staff like security guards, to staff the new facility.
Antonio Zapatero, director of the field hospital, told El Mundo that he had been struck by the “spectacular, fast and exciting response” of health workers.
“Volunteer doctors and nurses keep coming in to roll up their sleeves and get to work on whatever it takes. The solidarity, dedication and professionalism of these people is absolutely spectacular,” he said.
A nurse at Infanta Leonor hospital, which was overwhelmed by a surge of emergency patients Friday night, told El Mundo that the situation had improved by Sunday, partly as a result of the transfer of cases to Ifema.
Spain has been in lockdown since 14 March, with people allowed out only to buy food or medicine, seek medical help, or travel to work.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez warned Sunday that the country was yet to experience the peak of the crisis and told citizens to prepare for “very hard days ahead.”
“The worst is yet to come,” he said. “We have yet to receive the impact of the strongest, most damaging wave, which will test our material and moral capacities to the limit, as well as our spirit as a society.”
The Spanish health ministry's emergencies coordinator, Fernando Simon, told a news conference that health workers accounted for more than 10 percent of all confirmed cases adding to the strain on the overburdened hospitals.
“This is a significant problem for our health care system,” he said.
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