Sweden accused of denying care to elderly as report claims one in five Covid-19 care home patients never saw a doctor

Only between five and seven per cent of care home residents examined ever physically met a doctor

Credit: Angel Garcia 

As many as one in five of the elderly care home residents who caught Covid-19 in Sweden never saw a doctor, the country’s health inspectorate has revealed in a report outlining "serious shortcomings" in the country’s care homes.

The investigation by the Health and Social Care Inspectorate examined the journals of 847 care home residents with suspected Covid-19. 

Of those, only between five and seven per cent ever physically met a doctor, with the vast majority given consultations remotely by phone or online.  Of the fifth who received no examination by a doctor at all, only 60 per cent were even seen by a trained nurse.

"The lowest level [of care] is too low, even for a pandemic," Sofia Wallström, the inspectorate’s general director, said at an online press conference releasing the study. "This is about people: someone’s mum, someone’s dad, someone’s nearest and dearest."

The report concluded that none of Sweden’s 21 regional health authorities had "taken their full responsibility to secure needs-based medical treatment for people living in care homes for the elderly".

The shocking new findings come as the death rate in Sweden rises rapidly, with 94 new deaths reported between Friday and Tuesday. 

Infections are also yet again spreading within care homes, which have been the site of nearly half of Sweden’s 6,500 Covid-19 deaths, despite hopes that improved infection-control regimes would protect them. 

Infections are yet again spreading within care homes in Sweden

Credit: Angel Garcia 

The inspectorate’s report will add to growing disquiet in Sweden over the treatment given to elderly people infected with Covid-19, most of whom were never admitted to hospital or to intensive care units.  

An investigation by the Eskilstuna Kuriren newspaper found in May that 90 per cent of care home residents who died of the virus never received hospital care, instead dying in their care homes.

Other European countries have faced similar issues with care home residents in Spain largely given only palliative care at the peak of the first wave in April and May. 

The inspectorate’s report includes responses from 300 head nurses across Sweden, many of whom said that they were asked not to send care home residents who caught the virus to hospital for treatment.

In the Stockholm region, which in the spring and summer suffered by far the highest number of care home deaths, regional health authorities determined that "sick people should be cared for in the home," one of the nurses told the inspectorate.

In the city of Jönköping, health agencies issued a general guideline specifying "no cardiopulmonary resuscitation and no intensive care treatment for all those living in care homes".

In the region of Västernorrland, the report found doctors took decisions on palliative care without even looking at patients’ journals.