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– Staff ran between wards and anxious dementia patients coming and going, it was complete chaos, says nurse assistant Birgitta.
She is one of those who thinks that in her workplace she should have realized before that it was important to separate the sick from the infected.
– When you came and asked for protective clothing, they gave you two mouth guards to share, the hand alcohol was refilled, but nothing more, he continues.
Since the first covid-19 case was found in a Swedish nursing home, the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate, IVO, which deals with nursing homes during the pandemic, has received more than 800 suggestions, comments and complaints.
The echo has gone through everyone complaints and much of the tips that came to IVO during the spring and summer. At the beginning of the pandemic, people who say they work in specific households are alerted. Many cases refer to the fact that the administration has not taken the spread of the infection seriously, among other things, by failing to distinguish the sick from the healthy; people suspected of being infected have not been isolated until the test results arrive.
Several testify that they tried to point out the deficiencies to the management, without results and some have experienced that the nursing homes tried to obscure the gravity of the situation. Many of those who report do so anonymously and among those Ekot still contacts, few dare to speak. The nurse assistant Birgitta actually has a different name.
– I understand that you cannot ask for a million mouth guards that should be enough for everyone. It can’t be easy, they were all taken to bed.
– On the other hand, I think maybe you could have taken this seriously that you shouldn’t run between departments. There, I think you could have accepted with the hard gloves right away, she says.
Many ask for IVO to conduct inspections at their workplaces. Tips and complaints come from across the country, but most concern our metropolitan regions. A person in western Sweden writes:
“There is a human tragedy in silence! We have been abandoned to our fate, both residents and staff. Those who are still working go from infected to healthy wards. No risk of spread… Cover. No one can provide information to residents or relatives. “
Åsa Furén-Thulin, head of social services in the municipalities and regions of Sweden, believes that the situation in nursing homes is now completely different, that they have learned a lot and that managers also had a very bad time during this period.
– I think of the enormous frustration and pain and how difficult it must have been for both the managers and the employees and especially the users as well. It’s been a very rough journey, but I think a lot of this has to do with ignorance and despair and not being enough. I think if there is a second wave, we will be much more stable, he says.
