About one in two deaths from coronavirus in five european countries is reported from a nursing home, according to a study.
A group of researchers from the london school of economics analyzed official data from five countries: italy, spain, ireland, belgium and france. According to the data, between 42 and 57 percent of all deaths in these homes were linked to the novel pathogen.
The researchers stressed that their study was of limited value: individual states paid the price in different ways; the definition of "nursing home" also varied from state to state. This could have influenced the results, experts explain. Nevertheless, the outmab of infections and deaths in the homes could not be ignored.
The situation is clearer in ireland, where data on covid 19 is collected centrally. Of the 6444 patients registered with the lung disease until saturday, 288 died. 156 of them – 54 percent – were residents in nursing homes. In spain, the team even came to 57 percent. Here, however, the figures were based on media reports on statistics published by regional governments. Belgium came in at 42 percent, france at 45 percent and italy at 53 percent.
Critics have been complaining for weeks that the statistics in great britain have so far hardly included any deaths in homes. Rosalind altmann, a member of the uk house of lords, said in a BBC interview she was seriously concerned. Residents in nursing homes had reported to her that they felt "like lambs at the butcher’s". Seniors also had to be treated appropriately.
The british national health service (NHS) is chronically underfunded. Lack of clinical staff, beds, protective equipment and tests in the fight against the pandemic. Doctors must decide on the basis of survival chances, for example, who is to be ventilated in the event of insufficient capacity