[ad_1]
The Kursana-Heim, an ocher-yellow wing of the building not far from the B5 in Lichtenberg, is closed to all visitors, “due to a Covid-19 infection,” announced a booth in the lobby. Family members stand in the driveway and talk to their parents on their mobile phones. They stand at the window and wave.
The residents, who are currently 90, cannot leave their rooms, says a woman speaking with her 94-year-old mother. The “protective measures” were introduced after a nurse tested positive. That was on October 8. Since then, the situation at home seems to have gotten out of control. Twelve infected residents have died, according to a Kursana spokeswoman. There was reportedly another death on Sunday.
On Friday night, 14 infected residents were evacuated with the help of the fire department and taken to neighboring clinics. They were not seriously ill people, as initially stated, but residents of a wing of a seriously affected building, the spokeswoman said. This partial evacuation was agreed upon in a “joint crisis team with the health department.”
The district office, for its part, announced Friday that the medical officer had ordered an evacuation. According to information from Tagesspiegel, the home management is said to have initially resisted. The Lichtenberg district office was at the scene with lawyers. Kursana rejects this.
According to the district office, the number of infected people had risen to 47, including 27 residents, many of them over the age of 90. The others are employees or close contacts, he said. Kursana also spoke of 27 residents and 17 employees. All residents and employees had been screened before November 3.
[Wenn Sie alle aktuellen Nachrichten live auf Ihr Handy haben wollen, empfehlen wir Ihnen unsere runderneuerte App, die Sie hier für Apple- und Android-Geräte herunterladen können.]
According to RBB research, positive test results from 30 residents and 16 caregivers were available by the end of October. It is unclear why the parties were not evacuated at this time. Kursana declined to comment on this when asked.
Hygiene measures implemented according to the RKI standard
The health department had already been informed after the first infection occurred on October 8 and agreed to the new measures in close coordination, the Kursana spokeswoman said. No new residents have been accepted. “All hygiene measures are implemented in accordance with the RKI standard, all employees work with FFP2 masks and additional surface disinfection is performed regularly.” Courses and group offerings have been discontinued. The habitable areas “in which the Covid-19 cases occurred were immediately quarantined.”
The residents were not allowed to leave their living areas and had to eat in their rooms. Some of the evacuees are said to have returned to the home on Saturday, including the 94-year-old woman who was visited by her daughter. She had tested positive for the virus a few weeks ago, but showed no symptoms of the disease. At the hospital, the test came back negative, the daughter said.
Change of phone number of the district office and the health administration
Due to the infection in the home, there was a telephone switch between the heads of the Senate Health Administration and the district office on Saturday afternoon. A spokesman for Health Senator Dilek Kalayci (SPD) said that “the district office has expressed confidence that the district will do everything possible to improve the situation for residents who have stayed at home.” Looking at the operator of Kursana’s house, the Dussmann Group, he added: “We hope that Dussmann will provide clarification and, if necessary, take action.”
[Behalten Sie den Überblick: Corona in Ihrem Kiez. In unseren Tagesspiegel-Bezirksnewslettern berichten wir über die Krise und die Auswirkungen auf Ihren Bezirk. Kostenlos und kompakt: leute.tagesspiegel.de]
In view of the available facts about the outbreak, one expert said that information about the infection process at home may not have been transmitted by the operator and therefore the case escalated. There was talk of a “cloaking mechanism” within the carrier.
Heim did not meet staffing requirements
At home, many caregivers are currently working on a lease, the key to care has not been met, family members say. Also, the line has changed more frequently, most recently in October. Kursana confirms the director’s resignation, he left after the notice period ended at the end of October, but that has nothing to do with the Corona cases.
[Parallel zu dem Infektionsgeschehen im Lichtenberger Pflegeheim ist ein Corona-Ausbruch im dortigen Bezirksamt bekannt geworden, weitere Informationen dazu lesen Sie hier.]
Regarding the deceased residents, Kursana said: “As far as we know, they all had previous serious illnesses or were in palliative phase. We cry with the relatives ”. One of the relatives informed the Tagesspiegel. His 94-year-old aunt tested positive in October, arrived at the hospital on October 26, and died two days later (not two weeks later as initially reported). “I am in awe, not only by the operator, but also by the policy and the administration,” he wrote by email.
A caregiver who just finished his shift on Saturday afternoon describes protective measures at home as complex. There are FFP2 masks, gowns and protective gloves. Many of the infected residents are now “on the other side of the mountain.” According to an emergency doctor present at the home the previous week, the residents themselves were not properly equipped with protective FFP2 masks. “There was no medical indication for this,” Kursana said. Starting in the middle of next week, all nurses are required to do a quick test before starting work. In addition, “infected habitable zones” will be created to better separate infected and non-infected residents from each other.
Patient advocate Brysch criticizes policy flaws
Eugen Brysch, a board member of the Foundation for Patient Protection, criticized the fact that the policy leaves people in need and their caregivers alone in their homes. “There are also nurses and medical professionals who bring the virus into the facility through the back door,” Brysch told Tagesspiegel. Daily rapid tests before the start of each shift would be an effective means of quickly distinguishing between infected and uninfected people, he said. But these rapid tests are hardly available, this is also due to the fact that Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) only has 20 tests per month per resident for all employees, visitors and people in need of care, according to Brysch.
A separation of those affected between infected, uninfected and the “currently unknown” status is just as important in the course of infection protection and contact documentation, he explained. If the virus were still in the home, mobile task forces would have to help with maintenance. “All this is known now in the ninth month of the pandemic. It is difficult to forgive the federal and state governments that there is very little available locally, ”criticized Brysch. It is the task of Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) and the heads of government of the countries to quickly change something in their deliberations on Monday.
“Anyone who believed that spring scenes in geriatric care would not repeat themselves would be vastly mistaken,” said the board of the Foundation for Patient Protection. Large numbers of infections inevitably led to serious infections and death rates among people in need of care. “But politics continues to deal mainly with the situation in hospitals,” he criticized. Brysch noted that 6,000 people, and therefore half of the Covid 19 deaths, lived in homes. “And there are thousands of people most in need of care who lived at home,” he added.
