Anger at certain nursing homes receiving covid-positive residents from other facilities
Family of a Baix Llobregat nursing home resident oppose the Generalitat's decision
Barcelona"Neither now nor ever! No to the transformation of nursing homess into covid-19 shelters". This is what was written on the banner with which the family members of the residents admitted in the Falguera nursing home, in Sant Feliu de Llobregat, demonstrated days ago to stop the centre from becoming a "reference nursing home" in the region, and receive residents with coronavirus from other centres. This is a measure the Generalitat has promoted, and very little has been said so far about it.
After the first wave of coronavirus, which affected residents of nursing homes greatly, the Government has created the so-called "reference centers", which are nothing more than conventional old people's homes that already have their own users, but have free beds and sufficient staff and infrastructure to have more, as explained by sources in the Catalan Health Department. The Government of Catalonia has transferred to these nursing homes residents with coronavirus that come from old people's homes who either have many cases of covid-19, or are small and do not have enough space to isolate the residents and prevent contagion. Almost forty homes have already been converted into reference centres. The problem is that the relatives of these centres are not consulted: they find that the decision has been made overnight.
This is what happened to the family members of the Falguera nursing home. According to Mari Carmen Garay, who acts as a spokesperson for the family members who oppose this measure, and whose father is a resident in the centre, the management of the nursing home informed them by e-mail last November 10th that the home would become "a reference centre" in Baix Llobregat and would make "temporary admissions of covid cases to deal with outbreaks derived from the pandemic in other homess". Earlier, in the summer, the Health Department had already carried out certain changes in the nursing home to install 54 oxygen supply points. Garay said that the home also informed them about these changes, but never specified that the objective of installing these oxygen points was that the home would become a reference center. In fact, she states that they thought it was an improvement for the users of the home, and not for infected elderly who would be transferred from other homes.
In lockdown and without visitors
The problem, moreover, is that the measure comes when the relatives have had enough and the residents have been through an ordeal. "I haven't seen my father since September 24th, and my children haven't seen him since March. He has been in lockdown for two months and now they only let him leave the room and go to the dining room on even days. And on top of that now they tell us that we will be a reference center", complains Garay. "Please, a little dignity, they are people after all".
The Falguera home is a public centre of the Generalitat, it has 81 places - currently only 60 are occupied, after almost 20 residents have died of coronavirus -, and it is managed by the Vallparadís Foundation of the Mutua de Terrassa. In fact, sources of the Mutua de Terrassa do not take responsibility over the matter, and assure the ARA that the decision to turn the nursing home into a reference center does not depend on them, but on the Department of Health. The Department corroborates that the decision was taken by the Generalitat, but also specifies that if an old people's home is converted into a centre of reference, the Government will pay for the cost of the places in the home that are used for this purpose, whether they are occupied or not; in other words, whether or not a resident moves from another home. Consequently, this translates in an economic benefit for the Vallparadís Foundation.
Exceptional cases
Sources from the Department of Health also recognize that the family members of the Falguera home are not the only ones who reject this measure, there are also cases in other homes - although they are "very exceptional". "This opposition is generated by misunderstandings by which the family thinks that receiving positive patients can generate contagion among residents. This is not the case because these are the homes with the best infrastructural conditions", these same sources report. And they add: "Families also think that, because of receiving positive patients, their home will be classified as red and they will not be able to visit their family members, and this is not the case. A reference home, because of the fact that it has good infrastructures, would become an orange nursing home and, therefore, it would continue to allow visits".
This version contradicts that of the spokesperson for the relatives of the Falguera home, who regrets that for weeks they have not been able to visit their loved ones because cases of coronavirus have been detected in the centre. Some even among the staff. At the moment, the Generalitat has paralyzed the conversion of the nursing home into a center of reference of the Baix Llobregat. However, family members fear that it is only a temporary decision.
