They are not ready to forget that they died “alone, like dogs, abandoned” due to the decision of a regional government, that of Madrid, not to transfer the most vulnerable residents infected with covid to hospitals. “They didn’t even have a chance to survive”, say the relatives of the 7,291 people who died in the first wave of covid (March-April 2020). Since then, they have been asking the judiciary not to forget about it and to finally investigate that regional protocol that prevented the transfer to a hospital.
Yesterday they demonstrated again in the center of Madrid (several thousand) demanding justice in capital letters, and for the homes for the elderly to stop being a “service that only cares about making a financial profit, and forgets to serve with dignity”, point out sources from the Marea de Residencias, where relatives gather.
No, the data has not been invented. The former Councilor for Social Policies of the Community of Madrid Alberto Reyero declared in the summer before the judge that 90% of the residents who died between March and April 2020 did so in the same center for the elderly as a result of the application of non-referral protocols in hospitals. Only 10% died in hospitals. This data reflects very well what happened”, said Reyero, who resigned because he did not agree with these protocols.
The Government of Isabel Díaz Ayuso defends that that protocol “was a recommendation” and that the final decision on the transfer depended on the directors of the residence and geriatricians, a fact that Marea de Residencias questions: “When a protocol is a recommendation” ?, they ask.
Reyero testified before the head of Madrid’s District Court number 4, which is investigating several cases of deaths in two homes for the elderly in the Spanish capital during the first wave of the pandemic. Specifically, the judge is investigating the directors and two doctors, at the request of two lawsuits filed by relatives of the dead through the platform for the Dignity of the Elderly.
But it is not the only open case (many cases have been reported, but the justice system has rejected them). A few days ago, the Provincial Court of Madrid ordered the court of inquiry number 50 to reopen a case to investigate whether President Díaz Ayuso and two of his advisers during the pandemic (Enrique Ruiz Escudero, then in Sanitat, and Enrique López , of Justice) have some criminal responsibility in the death of seven people in a residence in Ciudad Lineal because they were not referred to the hospital.
This is stated in an interlocutory order dated October 25 in which, after the court dismissed the complaint of seven families, which appealed to the Provincial Court, it is ordered to investigate whether there are signs of criminality in the decisions of Ayuso, Ruiz Escudero and López.
Aside from what the justice finally decides about what happened in those centers, the reality is that it has been established that the situation of these residences (there are 3,000 in Spain) and the treatment that the residents receive could be more appropriate word In view of this reality, the Ministry of Social Services has set itself the goal (it began last term) of expanding care at home, because it understands that the elderly want to be at home as long as possible, and regarding the residences, turn them into “homes”, and reduce ratios and improve their services.
