COVID 19 DEATH IN ELDERLY CARE FACILITIES – NEGLECT AND BROKEN PROMISES
Why are elderly dying disproportionately from COVID 19 in countries with world class healthcare system? Elderlies deaths make up at least 50% of total COVID deaths in five EU countries and most of these are in care facilities.
Even in New Zealand, an exemplar for managing COVID 19, elderly deaths in care facilities exceeds 50% of all COVID 19 death to-date.
Governments all have plenty of early warning that the elderly was a high-risk group to COVID 19. Extra precautions should have been taken to protect them. The elderly and their families trusted their governments to protect them and not put them in harms way.
What has happened goes beyond careless neglect, it is a betrayal of this trust. Urgent actions is required to prevent any more unnecessary lost of lives amongst the elderly. In the long term, there needs to be a review and revamp of a care system that is broken and no longer fit for purpose.
Elderly being care for in their own home is a potential time bomb. Months of lockdown measures has deprived them of their network of support from families, friends and informal carers. There is no way to know what is happening in these elderly homes under lockdown conditions. When lockdown measures are relaxed some countries may find these home bound elderly becoming the next wave that could overwhelm health system. Surveillance system need to be put in place to provide early warning of any impending wave from home bound elderly.
Until there is an effective vaccine against COVID 19, governments have to do more to protect the elderly. It is not acceptable that the elderly continues to make up 50% of COVID deaths. More will died unnecessarily unless politicians and bureaucrats decision makers move with urgency.