29 mrt 2024 om 00:26 Update: 32 min. geleden
The lives of more than four thousand corona patients in care homes in Madrid could possibly have been saved. The regional government should have allowed them to be treated in a normal hospital in the early months of the pandemic, an investigative committee has said.
The corona committee, which was set up by Spanish citizens, spent months investigating the stories of relatives of patients and nursing home staff, reports The Guardian.
They tried to figure out why so many deaths occurred at those locations. In the first months of the corona pandemic, Madrid had to deal with extremely high mortality rates. Mortuaries could hardly cope with the demand during that period.
In March and April 2020, a total of 9,470 people died in care homes in Madrid. That amounts to approximately one in five residents. “They died while clinging to the bars of their beds, trying to breathe,” one of the employees told the investigative committee.
Chances of survival were greater in hospital
The mortality rate is far above that in other Spanish regions. According to the report by the corona committee published last month, the vast majority of those who died were not treated in hospital. This involved approximately 7,300 patients.
According to the committee, the number of patients brought to hospital from nursing homes fell in March 2020. In that month, the number of corona infections actually rose sharply.
Nursing homes that were dealing with staff shortages, a lack of oxygen masks or a lack of the right medicines for corona treatments would have been left to fend for themselves.
Of the people who were transferred to hospital, 65 percent survived. This is evident from figures collected by the committee. It suggests that many of Madrid’s coronavirus patients could have been saved if they had been treated in hospital.
Madrid previously launched its own investigation
The Madrid government previously launched an investigation into the high mortality rate during the corona pandemic. But that investigation was halted due to early elections in 2021.
When citizens asked in vain whether that investigation could be continued, they set up the investigative committee. This happened under the leadership of a former judge of the Spanish Supreme Court.
