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The enigma of the real number of deaths from covid-19 in residences in Madrid

2020-10-25T03:21:08.815Z


Many more people have died than those reported by the Community of Madrid, which gives incomplete information on the scope of the tragedy


The second wave is being much less deadly in Madrid residences according to the Community, but it is impossible to know how much because the regional government has never counted the total number of dead residents.

We only know how many die from covid-19 within residences (there were 5,954 in the spring wave and there have been 71 from September 1 to this Thursday).

But neither in the first wave nor in this new one have we known how many die in hospitals because they do not specify in their computer system that the patient arrives from a residence.

"The application that collects the data of the patient when he enters the hospital does not have any coded field that indicates that the patient's habitual residence is a residence", the General Directorate of the Integrated Health Process tells this newspaper in response to a request for access to public information.

Mortality within residences was so high in the first wave because on March 13, the Community instructed the region's hospitals to limit the income of dependent persons living in residences based on the availability of free beds.

When the healthcare pressure eased in mid-April, hospitals again admitted patients from nursing homes.

There were many residents killed in hospitals that have never been counted, and for this reason the figure of almost 6,000 residents killed by covid-19 in the first wave, the most used by the media, is probably much lower than the real one.

Before that period of hospital stoppage, people also died in nursing homes, but only in the case of terminally ill patients, who are considered better to administer palliative care in the same home for the elderly.

Now in this second wave, terminally ill people continue to die in nursing homes, hence the figure of 71 deaths since September 1, but the elderly dependents with the possibility of saving themselves are admitted by hospitals.

The problem of the figures in Madrid does not end there because even within the Government itself they do not agree on the total number of deaths from covid-19 within residences.

The departments affected by the crisis in residences, Social Policies and Health, use two different accounting methods.

The first counts the dead with a positive test for covid-19 and those who died with symptoms but without a diagnosis, which makes sense since there were no tests for a long period in spring.

The second counseling has less data because it is based on the information on the death certificates.

Many times these documents qualified as "cardiac arrest" what was actually a death caused by covid-19.

Thus, the Ministry of Health, 4,902 people have died in residences throughout the pandemic.

Sources from the Ministry of Social Policies say that from now on they will not report deaths.

One thing that does clarify the information from the Community on the second wave in residences is that the virus is creeping in again with ease.

There are 22 active outbreaks in the Community, where 473 nursing homes operate.

This suggests the troubling conclusion that contingency plans are not working in all cases.

Do you know cases of discrimination or irregularities in a residence in the Community of Madrid?

Contact the Madrid section reporter

fpeinado@elpais.es

or

send him

a message on Twitter to @FernandoPeinado

Information about the coronavirus

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- This is how the coronavirus curve evolves in Spain and in each autonomy

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2020-10-25

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