The Barcelona Prosecutor’s Office has filed a complaint against the director of a home from Barcelonahere are three other people -among them the housekeeper and the center’s doctor- for salmonella outbreak that caused the death of some elderly people, according to the letter to which EL PERIÓDICO has had access. A court in the Catalan capital has admitted the complaint, which is also directed against the company that manages the nursing home. Eight alleged crimes of serious negligence resulting in death are attributed to them from the outset. The facts were brought to the attention of the prosecution by the Barcelona Public Health Agency.
The prosecutor’s complaint states that since the end of July to September 2022in the residence (the prosecutor’s office has not provided the name), with capacity for 100 people -57 places are public-, there was a salmonella outbreak that affected 39 residentsof which 15 were hospitalized and eight died.
No outbreak reported
According to the prosecutor’s office, despite having the obligation to do so, the defendants from the nursing home did not notify any of the cases to the Public Health Agency of Barcelona, denying the contagion of the 33 residents and without communicating seven of the eight deceased. The public accusation maintains that the management of the center only provided information to this body once it had obtained knowledge of the facts through other sources. The agency’s investigation process “was hampered and the consequences of the outbreak notably aggravated due to the deliberate will” of the center to “hide any data or any new case from Public Health.
The complaint states that, in August 2022, the geriatrics unit of the Advisory Team (EAP) notified the agency of the existence of the outbreak. A team of toilets appeared at the center and were able to verify “a significant deficiency in hygiene and cleanliness of the rooms.” At that same moment, the management of the nursing home was informed of the necessary hygienic measures to avoid contagion. These precautions were repeatedly repeated by the official organizations, as well as the obligation to communicate the cases that were detected (residents with symptoms of diarrhea).
Lack of disinfection and protection material
Through the successive visits made by the epidemiological technicians, “the lack of application“, according to the accusation, of the established hygiene measures to contain the spread of the disease. In fact, the complaint adds, throughout the investigation process, the lack of hygiene, the lack of disinfection material and the lack of protective equipment to carry out this task “was a constant”, and this “despite the guidelines provided by the health personnel from the outset”.
In addition, given the proof by the public health agency that the residence was allegedly hiding information and new infections, it was necessary to collect medical reports from the public health system, including the history of hospital admissions. From these files, the prosecutor’s office emphasizes, it was possible to extract relevant data that confirmed the suspicions that “were harbored and that allowed us to confirm” information that was not reflected in the center’s records. So, through the hospital documentation it was possible to verify if there was a diagnosis of a resident and of the stool cultures performed in the hospital. It was then that it was discovered that the geriatric withholding information.
Inadequate antibiotic supply
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The prosecution maintains that the degree of concealment and “lack of collaboration” with the epidemiological technicians “reached such an extreme” that, informed those that their only source of knowledge was the auxiliary and nursing records, they stopped writing them down. relevant data, collecting only “inconsequential” facts, such as scheduled visits or diaper changes. It was also warned that an antibiotic was being supplied to various residents by the denounced doctor “without stating any reason or diagnosis” that “would justify the use” of this drug. The objective, according to the complaint, was “hiding and hindering” the detection of salmonella cases “from the health authorities.”
In short, the prosecutor’s office emphasizes, “the commissive behavior of those accused, by not having adopted the most elementary measures of attention, diligence and collaboration with the epidemiological technicians in the face of the serious health crisis that occurred” in the residence, contributed in August 2022 to the “aggravation of the outbreak and directly generated a high risk of transmission of infection and other health problems to residents.