What happened to the geriatrics, especially in the first wave of covid, it will be four years now, but also in other peaks of the epidemic, was terrible. Thousands of residents died. Desperate relatives called this newspaper because they knew nothing about their grandparents. Some centers didn't even pick up the phone. Some managers didn't know what to do, no material, no staff. Many workers became infected. There were those who closed with the residents to take care of them and avoid the transmission of the virus. And there were those who deserted from a precarious job. It was difficult to find substitutes, some oenagés (even firefighters and military) helped to disinfect and reorganize the centers to reduce contagions.
The Parliament of Catalonia, after two years and after listening to numerous people in the sector, has made a comprehensive report on what happened, as is also the case with the treatment of residents in the Assembly of Madrid. The Parliament report points out that if the epidemic overwhelmed the healthcare system, much more so the residences, with a more hotel and business model than medical care.
The first weeks were chaos and the ignorance of the infection and the fact that the older population is more vulnerable facilitated mass infections and mortality. There were many and contradictory instructions; coordination between administration and centers failed, information was given to families and, as a rule, isolation was applied which was very bad for the residents, who felt abandoned and many died without the accompaniment of their relatives. Medical care and hospitalization were uneven, depending on the areas. And luckily a vaccine arrived at the end of 2020. There were complaints, inspections, the Generalitat intervened in 35 centers (out of more than a thousand), but most have returned to the management entity.
No responsibilities are derived from the report. Advocate for rethinking the residential model, to strengthen its financing and the quality of care. Relatives of residents have been disappointed and angry. It's understandable. That thought of whether suffering could have been spared, more lives saved, is not erased. It is difficult to assign responsibility for a pandemic and few cases reached the courts. The problem is this doubt that if there was an alarm again, do we have guarantees that something similar would not happen?
