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| Sweden, whose softer virus approach has garnered international attention, admits it has failed to adequately protect the elderly, with around half of COVID-19 deaths occurring among nursing home residents (AFP Photo/Jonathan NACKSTRAND) |
Stockholm
(AFP) - Bjorn Branngard's mother died in a Stockholm nursing home where five of
the eight people in her section and more than a third of residents have so far
succumbed to the new coronavirus.
"They
didn't have time to take care of my mother," he told AFP.
Her
coronavirus test came back negative two days after her death, but Branngard,
who claims she died of neglect, says the nursing home staff lacked protective
gear and were spreading the virus around the home.
Sweden,
whose softer approach to the coronavirus has garnered international attention,
admits it has failed to adequately protect the elderly, with around half of
COVID-19 deaths occurring among nursing home residents.
Reports
have flooded Swedish media in recent weeks of care home staff continuing to
work despite a lack of protective gear.
Others have
refused to work and workers are encouraged to stay home even with mild
symptoms, leaving homes short-staffed.
Other
personnel have admitted going to work despite exhibiting symptoms of the virus,
potentially infecting residents, while some elderly have reportedly been
infected while admitted to hospital for other treatments and then sent back to
care homes where they unwittingly spread the disease.
Sweden has
reported 3,220 deaths from the virus as of Saturday.
The country
said early on that shielding those 70 and older was its top priority.
Yet 90
percent of those who had died as of April 28 were over the age of 70. Half were
nursing home residents, and another quarter were receiving care at home,
statistics from the Swedish Board of Health and Welfare show.
"We
failed to protect our elderly. That's really serious, and a failure for society
as a whole. We have to learn from this, we're not done with this pandemic
yet," Health and Social Affairs Minister Lena Hallengren told Swedish
Television recently.
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Reports
have flooded Swedish media of care home staff continuing to work
despite a lack
of protective gear (AFP Photo/Jonathan NACKSTRAND)
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'Staff
spread the virus'
Unlike many
European countries, Sweden has kept its primary schools open as well as bars
and restaurants, while urging people to respect social distancing and hygiene
recommendations.
It did,
however, ban visits to care homes on March 31.
Sweden's
Nordic neighbours also introduced bans around the same time, but have recorded
far fewer care home deaths.
But unlike
in those countries, Swedish nursing homes are often large complexes with
hundreds of residents.
They are
only available to those in very poor health and unable to care for themselves,
and residents are therefore "a very vulnerable group", according to
Henrik Lysell of the Board of Health and Welfare.
Bjorn
Branngard told AFP the personnel at his mother's home did not have proper
protective gear.
"There
was no protection. The personnel were going between different sections and
spreading the virus."
In greater
Stockholm, the epicentre of Sweden's virus spread, 55 percent of nursing homes
have so far confirmed COVID-19 cases, according to Region Stockholm health
authorities.
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In greater
Stockholm, the epicentre of Sweden's virus spread, 55 percent of nursing
homes,
where unions say some 40 percent of staff are unskilled workers on short-term
contracts, have confirmed COVID-19 cases, local authorities say (AFP
Photo/Jonathan
NACKSTRAND)
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Poor
working conditions
Kommunal,
Sweden's largest union for municipal employees which includes many care
workers, has meanwhile blamed precarious working conditions for the unfolding
tragedy.
It said
that in March, 40 percent of staff at Stockholm nursing homes were unskilled workers
employed on short-term contracts, with hourly wages and no job security, while
23 percent were temps.
In other
words: people who often can't afford not to go to work even if they're sick.
"There
are a lot of different people who work at several nursing homes, and that also
leads to a greater spread," the head of Kommunal's nursing home division,
Ulf Bjerregaard, said.
At the end
of April, Kommunal filed a complaint to the Swedish Work Environment Authority,
claiming that 27 of the 96 residents at the home where Branngard's mother lived
had so far died of the virus, and yet staff were not being provided protective
gear or offered testing.
The
authority is studying the complaint, and prosecutors have opened a preliminary
investigation.
Abdullah, a
pseudonym for a 21-year-old refugee who didn't want to disclose his real name,
has worked as an assistant in a care home outside Stockholm for two years.
He told AFP
about a resident treated in hospital for a broken leg.
"She
tested negative for the virus when she was with us. When she returned from the
hospital three days later, she was positive," he said.
"We
had protective aprons but no masks when we were working with her," he
said, adding that he has since refused to go to work.
The Public
Health Agency meanwhile said efforts to improve basic hygiene routines in the
homes were paying off.
"Stockholm
has actually had a clear decrease in cases (in nursing homes), that feels
positive," state epidemiologist Anders Tegnell told reporters on Thursday.
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