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Geriatric clinics are now being rapidly replenished by older people with severe covid disease. – It is clear that the need is increasing day by day, says Marianne Reimers-Wessberg at the Stockholm nursing home. Many are extremely weak and cannot even eat on their own when they enter.
Geriatric clinics clearly note that the need for care facilities for the frail elderly with covid disease is increasing day by day. Stock Photography.
Corona infection is now increasing significantly even in the oldest age group, over 70, who are at the highest risk of becoming seriously ill and dying. The trend is clearly visible in geriatric clinics, which care for frail elderly patients who are not considered capable of receiving intensive care.
Both Nackageriatriken and the Stockholm nursing home, which for a period have been completely without coronary heart disease patients, have in no time had to reopen their covid departments. Places have quickly filled with patients, especially from emergency hospitals. The Stockholm nursing home has switched to staff mode in order to handle the rapid changes.
Many older people are in very poor condition when they enter, says Peter Johnson, a geriatrician and operations manager for Capio Geriatrics Nacka.
-The feeling is that those of us who get involved this fall are sicker and more included, he says.
– Last week we had eleven patients in our covid ward. Of them, a patient could eat alone. The other ten had to be fed. They were so weak when they slept here with us.
Last weekend, three of the covid patients died at Nackageriatriken. Their places were immediately filled with new patients.
– The pressure from emergency departments is enormous right now, says Peter Johnson.
During this spring’s pandemic, geriatric clinics in Stockholm hospitals converted a total of 350 places of care to caring for the elderly with COVID-19 alone. The death toll was comparatively high; according to researchers at the Karolinska Institutet approximately ten times higher than for other diseases that require geriatric care.
– About 80 percent usually stabilize after oxygen, pain relief, and other things, and you can go home after a few weeks of care. But about 20 percent deteriorate, sometimes quite quickly, and end their stay here in the hospital, says Peter Johnson.
Most people die from the weight of the lungs, which means that the lungs can no longer oxygenate the body. However, it can also cause complications such as a heart attack, heart failure, or kidney failure caused by Covid-19.
– Very old patients, older than 90 years, those who manage it, and younger patients, 70 years old, those who die. It is more related to their previous morbidity and frailty than it is to age, says Peter Johnson.
In the spring, the death rate was higher, but gradually care has improved to understand and treat the disease, according to geriatric directors.
– It is a burden on the business and it is stressful to take care of these patients. But now we have an experience that we didn’t have this spring and that makes it a little less strenuous, when we have more to offer, says Marianne Reimers-Wessberg, head physician at the Stockholm nursing home.
Today there are documents and routines and the availability of protective equipment, medicines and other materials is also good, he says.
Neither manager currently has major concerns that the death toll will rise dramatically. However, there are fears that the crisis will last.
– I think this time we will have to take care of ourselves longer. The scale won’t be that high, but it will last longer. Spring is a long way off, says Marianne Reimers-Wessberg.
At the same time, the employees are quite tired, he says.
– I probably think you feel a sigh; “Wow, do we do this again?” We hoped it didn’t have to be this way, but now we do.
Older people have been singled out as most worthy of protection since the start of the pandemic. It is now everyone’s responsibility to do what we can to prevent more people, especially the elderly, from becoming seriously ill and dying, says Peter Johnson.
– Those who do not take this seriously, who go to big parties, the pub and sit near the pub, are the ones who spread the infection in society. It is then filtered out to the elderly population. It’s not the older people who run around town and get the infection, but it’s probably the younger generation who don’t take the restrictions seriously. They are the ones that need to be fine-tuned, says Peter Johnson.
He is also critical of sampling in the region, which he says has been delayed through the fall. Healthcare employees with symptoms ended up in the same queue as everyone else and had to wait for both test results and sample results.
– This means you can go to work before you are sure you are free from infection. But it has also meant a shortage of staff who have to stay home awaiting test results.
More than 23,000 have been treated in hospitals
Since the start of the pandemic, 23,442 people have been treated in hospital care for covid-19 (both in intensive care and in regular wards).
Of these, 10,292 (44 percent) were over 70 years old.
To date, 3,568 have died of covid-19 in hospital care.
The older a person is, the greater the risk of serious illness and death, and if the person also has other illnesses, the risk increases even more.
A total of 162,240 people have been confirmed to be infected with COVID-19 in Sweden and 6,057 have died.
Of all those who died, nine out of ten were over 70 years old.
Source: National Health and Welfare Council, FHM
