Schliersee care scandal was not an isolated case: Ministry presents report - further cases in Bavaria known

Once again, the state parliament's health committee dealt with the case of the Schliersee senior citizens' residence.

It is now certain that there are serious lack of care in other homes as well.

But the control system is unlikely to change significantly for the time being.

The senior citizens' residence Schliersee (Miesbach district) has made negative headlines for years. It was closed a good month ago and the residents moved to other homes. Closing the home is the last resort and very rare - but the problems that existed in Schliersee are obviously not only there. This is now shown in a report that a representative of the ministry presented to the state parliament's health committee yesterday. Accordingly, there are currently at least two other so-called operating prohibition procedures in Bavarian old people's homes. Facilities in Coburg and Burglengenfeld had recently closed in the run-up to operating prohibition proceedings. "Significant deficiencies" were found during inspections in a number of other homes. In 2019 alone there were 173 institutions.There is a significant deficiency when there is a risk to the life or health of the residents.

That was also the case in Schliersee. The prosecution is investigating 17 deaths and dozen cases of assault. Many home residents are said to have been neglected or malnourished. The home has been checked 40 times and it was only closed in September of this year. The responsible home supervision in the Miesbach district was committed to its tasks in the pandemic - this is the assessment of the Ministry of Health. The opposition has serious doubts about this. In Schliersee, glaring care deficiencies were reported from several sides, emphasizes Andreas Krahl, the health policy spokesman for the Greens. Evacuation plans had been in place much earlier. Some residents are now housed in a facility of the same provider in Augsburg. Krahl also called that questionable.The FDP MP Dominik Spitzer criticized that controls only make sense if they have consequences that go beyond a consultation. For this, the laws would have to be fundamentally changed, he emphasized. And the SPD health expert Ruth Waldmann also asked how blatant deficiencies could be accepted for years if the controls had taken place in a suitable form.

The ministry wants to readjust the home controls on at least two points. The home supervisor is to issue orders in the future if serious care deficiencies have been identified. In addition, she can request a special unit at the State Office for Health and Food Safety in the future.

Andrea Würtz would have liked more improvements. In spring 2020 she was seconded to the Miesbach district office as an employee of the government of Upper Bavaria and had taken over the series tests in the homes in the district. During this time she observed glaring lack of care in Schliersee. She reports of completely starved and poorly cared for seniors. At that time she sent out many reports, she says. Also to the government and home supervision. But they remained without consequences, she reports. She also hoped that the health committee would have more willingness to change the existing control system, she said after the meeting. If deficiencies are found again and again after 40 checks, the consequences must be quicker. From their point of view, one step towards this would beto no longer relocate home supervision to the district offices, but to a higher-level body. In addition, the system would have to be changed in such a way that the controls are not set to zero when the carrier changes, she demands.

In Schliersee, the porters had changed again and again, the management of the home and staff mostly remained the same - and so did the conditions.

However, the deficiencies that are found during controls are then not considered to be "recurring".