Spanish nursing homes struggle with depleted staff, “exhausted” professionals and fear of collapse

NURSING homes face the second wave of the pandemic in Spain under great pressure. After the  “abandonment” suffered in March by the authorities and more than 20,000 deaths, they are now facing outbreaks with depleted resources, “exhausted” professionals and fear of a new health collapse.

Although they say they are more prepared than at the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, the sector lacks clear coordination at the state level and calls for greater public investment to guarantee the safe care that the elderly deserve.

One of the most worrying situations is that of the staff, whose numbers are “totally insufficient” according to the Commissions of Workers (CCOO). Instead of having given a reinforcement in the workforce, which were already surpassed by the outbreaks of last spring, the union offers alarming data.

That is an exodus of doctors and nurses from nursing homes to Public Health of between 15 per cent and 30 per cent. There was also an alarming drop in geriatric assistants of around 20 per cent when the Spanish Society of Geriatrics and Gerontology (SEGG) indicated the actual need for an increase in the ratio between of between 20 per cent and 25 per cent to cope with Covid.

In addition, absenteeism among nursing home workers is around 20 per cent motivated by “sick leave due to depression, anxiety and physical problems due to overload”, not counting in this data the sick leave due to coronavirus infections, which vary from day to day. The union has in turn calculated that 5 per cent of these professionals have taken early retirements.

“The people who stay active are exhausted. Many have had their vacations suspended and others have been sent back due to outbreaks ”, explains the head of the CC.OO. Dependency, María Victoria Gómez.

She adds that the “stampede” of health professionals towards Public Health is due to the fact that it “offers better conditions with a better salary”  sometimes tripling what doctors and nurses in nursing homes receive for “very hard work”.

But apart from losing health professionals, the president of the Círculo Empresarial de Attention to People (CEAPs), Cinta Pascual, points out that  “the main fear” of the residential sector is “that there will be another health collapse” like the one experienced in spring. Pascual, who denounced in Congress that the centres had received orders in March not to transfer the elderly to hospitals, emphasises that residents have the right to Public Health: “Everyone must be clear that they have to us give health care.”