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Some directors of residences are outraged at this low occupation, taking into account the incidence of waves of contagion during the pandemic
“This is a joke, isn’t it?”, the director of a residence in Vallès answers the phone when he learns of the low occupancy of the reference residences, ‘buffer’, which during 2020 and until September 2021 should house patients with coronavirus from Catalan nursing homes. Some directors consulted by EL PERIÓDICO who request anonymity do not believe that only 18.8% of the available places were filled. They assure, indignantly, that they desperately tried to transfer their infected residents to the authorized reference centers for it, but there was no way to do it. “You had to be very well connected or create a scandal in the media to be transferred,” says a doctor who is also responsible for a nursing home.
The Ministry of Social Rights paid 10.6 million euros to provide more than 141,641 places in residences for the elderly and people with disabilities who were infected with coronavirus, but with minor consequences. According to the data obtained by this newspaper, more than 80% of the places were not occupied. The expense for the service not provided exceeds seven million euros. All this occurred between April 2020 and September 2021, although the bulk of the contracts date from November 2020 and March 2021. In that period, the virus killed more than 2,007 residents and infected 11,023 people inside Catalan nursing homes.
“People were dying in the residences while the ‘buffers’ that they had promised us were empty,” exclaims the director of a nursing home in Vallès who asks to protect his identity for fear of complaints from relatives. “We were all Desperate asking for transfers because we got rid of the focus of the infection and also managed to keep the staff from falling sickwhich is the main problem that affected us, especially after vaccination”, assures the person in charge of the residence. “This case shows a serious uncoordinated care and the health authorities must give explanations“, criticism.
Without going any further, this is demonstrated by the case of the residence in Tremp (Pallars Jussà), where 60 elderly people died of coronavirus. Many of them died inside the nursing home and others were transferred to the Pallars regional hospital, a few meters from the nursing home, where they ended up dying. No transfer to buffer centers was proposed, despite the fact that in the same region, in the municipality of Pobla de Segur, there was a residence with 16 beds available, and in Guissona another with 19 beds.
“A miracle” to get a transfer
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Another manager of a nursing home, who is also a doctor, confirms this view. “To get a transfer we had to get a miracle: either you caused a scandal in the media or you had to have good contacts and be well connected”, he assures. The truth is that they were the Salut delegates in each health area, supported by the professionals of the CAP or the specialized teams, the who decided the transfers to the ‘buffer’ centers. “They told us that more serious cases of residences that could not do isolation were prioritizedbut given the low occupancy, I don’t understand why they didn’t use those beds, it’s a scandal,” he says.
Other directors affirm that they were offered this service, but they refused it. “I was afraid that the press, or relatives, would find out, and give the feeling that we were incapable to control the situation, it gave a bad image”, assures another director of a center. According to this source, the rate of unusability of the ‘buffer’ residences was an open secret. “There was a lot of comment among the directors of the area that they did not they used all the squares”, he adds. “The issue is that it was public money that was spent on a service that, seen what was seen, did not help much. But the expenses in the residences skyrocketed and we had to face many extra costs with savings and credits,” laments another director of a residence in Garraf.
Family associations speak of “scandal”
“It is one more scandal, a case of alleged misappropriation of public funds in its entirety,” they explained this morning. Azahara Galeraone of the platform spokespersons Movement Residences Catalonia, which brings together family members and workers in the dependency sector. “We are not surprised that there is a cat locked up because the Generalitat has taken this issue of the ‘buffer’ centers with much obscurantismGalera added.
The platform has issued a statement in which it accuses the Generalitat of not having enough tools to check if the spending of the centers was correct. “The Administration must watch to see where the money has come and it has not been done. Due to more irregularities and sanctions, the companies continue to manage these nursing homes,” he complains, and asks for a “change of model so that attention to the most vulnerable ceases to be a business for large companies”.
“What they have to do is give explanations to the citizens, to the parliament and see what responsibilities must be taken. The residences are in a dire situation, with a lack of personnel and ratios, and there were those who took a lot of public money that did not serve to nothing at least someone has not done their job wellor”, has complained Maria Jose Carcelenspokesperson for the 5+1 residency coordinator.
For its part, the PSC parliamentary group announced that it is going to ask the ‘former minister’ of Health for explanations Alba Verges and his then counterpart from Afers Socials, Chakir El Homrani, which were the first to tender these services. They will do it, detailed the deputy Raúl Moreno, in the social rights commission, within the working group that in the coming months will have to investigate what went wrong in Catalan residences during the coronavirus and what must change in the dependency system. “It is an oversized service for which explanations must be given,” said the socialist.
“It’s a scandal and demonstrates the dramatic situation of the perversion of the nursing home model in Catalonia: it is in private hands and the administration is not capable of supervising or having control of the public money invested, especially at a time of maximum drama for the care of very vulnerable people”, the deputy of the CUP has also complained Laia Estrada. The anti-capitalist party has also requested the appearance of the current ‘consellers’ of Salut and Drets Socials, as well as their predecessors, but in an open appearance. He has also presented parliamentary questions on the subject and plans to survey the ‘ministers’ on Wednesday in the plenary session of Parliament.