Ekot’s continued review of elderly care has been able to show how many have sounded the alarm about lack of care, that the elderly have been locked with furniture for the doors during the pandemic and that staff have been silenced by managers. Now the Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren (S) is commenting on what has emerged.
– No, but it’s a terrible situation. I have to say that. And I think we all feel that when we take part in these reviews, but also by others, says Lena Hallengren.
In a series of features Ekot has reported on how corona infection has been handled in elderly care. These are staff who sounded the alarm about an unsustainable situation on the floor. About elderly dementia sufferers who have been trapped alone in their rooms.
Relatives of covid-19 patients have reported that they were neither sufficiently informed nor involved in decisions about when their family members were given care at the end of life. But also reports of lack of care, which have been received by the Swedish Health and Care Inspectorate, IVO.
Minister of Social Affairs Lena Hallengren believes that it looked different in the country, and that one should be careful about pulling all nursing homes over a ridge.
– It looks very different, but it is important that each business evaluates and learns, and makes sure that you draw the right conclusions.
Have you had good elderly care?
– It is clear that the descriptions you give, you should not experience elderly care. I think we completely agree on that.
What should you, as Minister of Social Affairs, do in the future so that these situations do not arise again?
– On the one hand, it is of course about taking part in the review that IVO does, to take part in the corona commission, but it is also about the fact that we have already added large financial grants to make it possible to maintain and have a good quality in the business, says Lena Hallengren.