In a statement published on Wednesday 20 May, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, Dunja Mijatović, criticised the “chaotic” management of the Covid-19 pandemic in long-term care facilities and called for strong measures.
On the basis of the figures put forward by the WHO Regional Director for Europe, she pointed out that half of the people who had died as a result of the Covid-19 crisis were living in such establishments, particularly those for older people. “This chilling picture emerged slowly”, she says, referring to France and the United Kingdom, which were slow to include these deaths in official figures, and “it appears in all countries hit by the virus, many residents fell ill and lost their lives completely alone and isolated, often even without the knowledge of their families”.
Ms Mijatović includes the fragility of residents as a factor in the increase in mortality, but uncompromisingly points out the shortcomings: unpreparedness, chronic under-staffing, including because for some healthcare facilities “their private owners have long been privileging profits over the quality of care”, lack of protective equipment for staff, poor epidemiological surveillance, insufficient coordination between these establishments and hospitals.
“In accordance with their obligations under Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights regarding the right to life, member states must shed light on all the deaths occurring in these institutions, without exception”, the Commissioner warns, who also recalls Article 3 of the Council of Europe Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine, which sets out the principle of equitable access to health care.
See the text of the declaration: https://bit.ly/2TE4LSL (Original version in French by Véronique Leblanc)