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As of December 16, 2,383 people had died in Swedish nursing homes as a result of COVID-19.
When the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate examined the records of 98 special housing units, criticism was directed at 16 out of 21 regions in Sweden. End-of-life care had not been provided in accordance with regulations in effect during the corona pandemic.
Investigator: Did not perform regular operations
Statistics from the Swedish Palliative Care Registry confirm the situation. Only half of those who died from covid-19 in nursing homes were examined by a doctor during the last month of life. It shows a compilation made by the Siren news agency.
While 51.9 percent of those who died from the coronavirus were medically examined, the same figure for the other deceased at home was 65.9 percent.
– End-of-life care routines did not work as well during the pandemic. In the case of the deceased, they did not make the usual efforts that should be made before the expected deaths to the same extent as usual, says Lisa Martinsson, a doctor and researcher at Umeå University, to the Siren news agency.
Such a large proportion of patients in Swedish nursing homes had to see a doctor before they died.
Photo: Siren News Agency / Swedish Palliative Care Registry
“There was no air in the system to handle this”
Together with a research team, he has studied how end-of-life care worked during the pandemic in elderly care. Research has revealed big differences between nursing homes and hospitals. In hospitals, almost all corona patients were seen by a doctor on the last day or week before they died.
Among patients in nursing homes, 42 percent (1,003 people) received their last medical exam more than a month before dying.
According to Lisa Martinsson, there may be different explanations for how this can happen.
– One possible explanation is that many got sick at the same time, that it could have created a very large load, and that there was no air in the system to cope with this. Another aggravating factor may have been that the organization around care for the elderly is divided and is made up of several actors: care for the elderly within the municipality and the region. I also note that there was no contingency plan for good end-of-life care in the event of a pandemic, he tells Siren.
The worst was in Västernorrland
There are big differences between counties, with Västernorrland the most dismal figures. There, only 27 percent of those who died in a nursing home had to see a doctor in the month before death.
Below are the statistics, county by county.
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