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Amanda Larsson’s grandfather, Bengt Larsson, 96, lives at the Postiljonen dementia home in Svedmyra, south of Stockholm. Amanda describes that her grandfather is confused, with better and worse days, but that he is a basically positive person.
– He often sits and sings in his room. He is an important part of our lives, for me and my daughters, even if we don’t visit him as often as we would like. Every time we talk on the phone, I am happy, says Amanda Larsson.
When Bengt got infected with covid-19 in early April, a nurse told Amanda that they would not take him to the hospital if he got worse and had trouble breathing, something the ETC newspaper also described.
Amanda Larsson with her grandfather before the pandemic broke out.
Photo: Private
Saltsjöbaden AB family doctors are responsible for medical care at the accommodation. In a recorded conversation with the doctor in charge of the company in which DN was involved, Amanda describes how the nurse told her that if she got worse she would be allowed to “fall asleep on morphine.” The doctor confirms on the tape:
– Basically yes, we have such guidelines, we will not ship. He shouldn’t be wearing a respirator, he has Alzheimer’s and he’s so old there won’t be any effect. We usually see these patients on site with medication to relieve symptoms, in the nursing home.
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Amanda responds to the doctor It is notable that family members are not informed that the decision has been made that the grandfather should not receive any type of respiratory support when necessary.
The conversation also shows that the doctor is responsible for 270 patients in various nursing homes and that Bengt Larsson could not count on a medical examination, as the doctor and her colleagues worked remotely during the pandemic. Medical evaluations were conducted with the guidance of the nurse.
– Yes, we work from home so as not to spread the infection during the pandemic, says the doctor in the recording to Amanda.
Amanda Larsson did not want Accept the message about palliative care, but get a promise from the doctor that Bengt Larsson, in the event of deterioration, will go into geriatrics, where he can provide oxygen assistance.
“I really couldn’t have dreamed of that during a pandemic, that doctors would withdraw,” says Amanda Larsson.
Photo: Anette Nantell
Amanda says she perceived that doctors had abandoned both residents and staff at Postiljonen, which had a large death toll.
– I really couldn’t have dreamed of that during a pandemic, that doctors would withdraw.
Stefan Amér, general director of the family doctor says in a recorded conversation with Amanda Larsson, that the new way of working has been created to reduce the spread of the infection.
– But if the covid is prolonged, then we must make visits that we have now advanced, says Stefan Amér.
DN has sought out the director of the Postilljonen unit, who is concerned with family doctors. Since May, the CEO of the company, Stefan Amér, has not wanted to give an interview about criticism of the company’s doctors’ treatment of covid patients in special homes. When Amér gives an interview to a reporter about DN on another topic, he posts the question with, and then responds:
– It is true that both the region and the National Board of Health and Welfare have developed certain guidelines during the pandemic that limit certain types of efforts. But our starting point has always been that each patient should receive an individual assessment and that we never accept that, for example, some kind of scale, disaster situation or something else can be used as some kind of method to exclude the best possible care for the patient. So it is clear that elderly patients are better cared for in nursing homes. In some cases, you must raise the level of care on the site.
Amér refers, among other things to the governing document of the region to provide the appropriate level of care to covid patients where a scale is used that estimates the frailty of the elderly.
The Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate carries out comprehensive supervision of the care of the elderly in nursing homes, to ensure that the elderly have received an individual assessment and that their care needs have been met.
Bengt Larsson recovered without much need for care. Amanda Larsson says that the knowledge that others are judged according to the same government document does not give her any peace.
– I would like them to press the stop button for these control documents, so that no one has to be affected while Ivo investigates, he says.
