An elderly person in an Ehpad. (Drawing) – AFP
Thirty-two deaths in six weeks, between March and mid-April. The management of the Pont-de-Veyle hospital center (Ain) admitted on Wednesday the existence, unnoticed, of a “cluster” of patients suffering from
Covid-19. Seventeen of the deaths occurred in
the Ehpad of the center and fifteen in its hospital services, it was said to AFP, confirming information from the regional daily Progress.
Management, strongly criticized by some staff, did not specify the proportion of victims who died from the new coronavirus. But she admitted “the probable presence of a” cluster “during the second half of February, impossible to identify and of unknown origin”.
“Open letter” signals “general disorganization” of center
Through the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regional Health Agency (ARS), a “massive screening” of 300 staff and 77 residents of nursing homes dependent on the hospital center made it possible to determine that 30 people had been infected for the first (most asymptomatic) and 31 among those “in nursing homes and long-term care”.
On Wednesday, management of the crisis was questioned by some caregivers, speaking in an “open letter” but unsigned. They underline the “general disorganization” of the center “which failed to take stock of the scale of the Covid-19 disaster”. Contacted by AFP, the management of the Pont-de-Veyle hospital did not wish to speak.
According to the ARS on Wednesday, 1,102 people died of Covid-19 in hospitals in the region and 871 in Ehpad, including 41 in Ain.
