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Authorities decline to report suspended nurses

Local authorities in Norrköping have elected not to report two assistant nurses suspected of maltreating elderly patients at a nursing home to the police, according to the local Folkbladet daily.

Published: 20 July 2011 07:18 CEST
Authorities decline to report suspended nurses

“We have no bruises, footage or recordings to show. One of the nurses has not admitted to any allegations and in many ways it is word against word,” said Eva Abrahamson at the municipality to Folkbladet.

The nursing home in eastern Sweden made the papers following reports in the beginning of July that two assistant nurses were back at work despite the personnel department’s knowledge of their blatant maltreatment of patients.

One patient had her vomit shoved back down her throat, other patients were slapped and pinched. Another woman, 100 years of age at the time, was subjected to her own fist being shoved in her mouth.

The two assistant nurses were originally suspended for a period of three weeks and two months respectively, and then returned to their former positions at the home.

But the slew of complaints received from concerned relatives regarding the reinstated nurses caused local authorities in the municipality to change their minds and remove the nurses from the nursing home again.

However, despite the many reports from the other nursing home staff, and from patients’ relatives, some of which have already reported the matter to the police, local authorities don’t intend to follow suit.

According to Abrahamsson, who has spent three months investigating the case, the Lex Sarah reports against the two nurses hinge on the information received by the nurses’ colleagues.

“Some of the allegations are correct but regarding some things it is really their word against someone else’s,” said Abrahamson to Folkbladet.

However, the paper also reports that the chief prosecutor of the area, Torsten Angervåg, decided last week to open a preliminary investigation into the matter as he suspects a crime may have been committed.

“He will make the call if a crime has been committed or not. Then we will know whether or not we have done the right thing,” said Anette Ödalen, head of care services at the municipality to Folkbladet.

Both nurses are currently suspended from work on full pay while waiting for the municipality to decide whether they will be allowed to return to their old jobs.

Lex Sarah is a law obliging staff in the care industry to report instances of mistreatment to social services.

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Spain’s prosecutors file criminal complaint over virus care home death

Spanish prosecutors said Tuesday they have filed a criminal complaint against a Madrid care home doctor and its director over the Covid-related death of a resident, in the first such case in the capital region since the start of the pandemic

Published: 15 December 2020 15:49 CET
Spain's prosecutors file criminal complaint over virus care home death
Photo: AFP

Madrid's public prosecutor's office said the two women are suspected of manslaughter and denial of medical attention in relation to the death in March of a woman in her 80s who had just moved into the home.   

Madrid was one of the hardest-hit cities in Europe by the first wave of the pandemic, and the complaint is expected to be one of several alleging inadequate care at retirement homes during the period.

In a statement, the prosecutor's office said the doctor and the director of the home, who were not named, did not follow the protocol set up by the Madrid regional government for caring for residents during the pandemic.

The doctor “disregarded” the protocol and did not call a hospital about the woman, despite her worsening condition, until eight days after she began having breathing trouble.

“Despite her rapid transfer to hospital, she died the following day from cardiac arrest,” the statement said.

The care home's director “was aware of the patient's clinical situation (but) did nothing” to ensure she received health care during periods when the doctor was absent, notably on the weekend before her death, it added.   

Amnesty International warned earlier this month that conditions at elderly care homes in the Madrid region and in Catalonia remained “alarming” despite improvements.

In a sharply worded report, it said the “vast majority” of residents had not been properly cared for during the pandemic.

The measures put in place by both regions were “inefficient and inadequate” and violated the residents' rights, it said.   

Spain has been one of Europe's worst-hit countries, with the virus infecting more than 1.7 million people and causing over 48,000 deaths.

Close to half of that number are believed to be elderly people who died in homes, Amnesty said.

At the height of the first wave in March, Spanish soldiers helping to fight the pandemic found elderly patients in retirement homes abandoned and, in some cases, dead in their beds.

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