In a few days it will be the fourth anniversary of the first diagnosis of covid in Catalonia. The pandemic cannot be revisited with a spirit of justice or revenge. The overflow of the individual and collective psyche was widespread. The scarcity of resources – material and human – and the lack of scientific knowledge did the rest. That institutions, regardless of the place and color that managed them, improvised and tried their luck was inevitable. Therefore, anyone who tries to become a sheriff of the medical decisions of that time is nothing more than a petty person.
But it would also be someone who aspires to the protection of forgetfulness so that some of the things that happened fall into oblivion. And the most serious of what happened was the treatment received by older people admitted to nursing homes. Too many died of asphyxiation, imprisoned in a room without receiving medical attention, in many cases not even palliative care.
Did this happen in the Madrid that is talked about so much? Yes. But also in Catalonia! Or in many other places in Spain. And since until artificial intelligence determines otherwise it still makes sense among humans to ask forgiveness from the dead, perhaps we should apply ourselves to testing the formula now that enough time has passed. This might be useful: we didn't know how and couldn't do better; Even so, forgive us for what we did to you.
Yesterday, the Parliament approved the 166 pages of the report of the working group on the impact of covid on nursing homes. It is not asking for forgiveness. But it is the acceptance of serious deficiencies in our system of care for the elderly during the pandemic that remain in the present. There are extremely harsh paragraphs about what happened in the conclusions of each separate match. Those of a joint nature, on the other hand, are more sugary.
Even so, we do not take away one iota of value from the much it has. Since sweetened or not, it presents a truly devastating scenario. Let us also add that the Parliament is the only Spanish institution that has dared to delve into what happened. Let us also grant it the value of uniqueness. And let's assume, although that is already a lot to ask, that of the capacity for radical transformation of the residential system that still has not occurred.
Today it was time in this article to talk about Feijóo, about Putin already directly threatening Europeans through the Baltic countries or about the Narcos Spain chapter in which civil guards are executed. But for one day we abandon the script of the rabid news. Because the Parliament's report deserves lines to remember the 4,600 deaths in Catalan residences in conditions of medical care that were insufficient at best and non-existent at worst. Not to find culprits – it was a pandemic! – but to not forget how and under what conditions they died. The hospital collapse justified the selection and with it the death sentence of many elderly people – it is painful to write it, so imagine making the decision – but not the total abandonment in their final transit.
Back to the present, Spain continues to allocate 0.75% of GDP to finance dependency compared to the 1.5% of the EU average (2.8% in the eight richest countries in the community area). The cost of a hospital nurse can be 91% higher than its equivalent in a nursing home. In the case of assistants, the difference can reach 57.4%, according to data from the sector itself, making it difficult to attract professionals and impossible to retain them. It is the cost of chronic underfinancing. Nor has the promised increase in care at home to the detriment of the institutionalization (detention) of elderly people in need yet occurred, since the figures are still those of 2013. And the effort begun to achieve greater integration of Health and residential services also leave much to be desired today. The Parliament's report is a good day to remember these things. Without acronyms involved or messages from anyone. Just thinking about the older people who were, are and will be. The most political article, but without any politicking.
