The Azores Regional Section of the Nurses Association argues that the circumstances surrounding 12 deaths in the Nordeste home due to Covid-19 should be investigated.
Pedro Soares, president of the association in the Azores, visited the home and met with the head of Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Nordeste, the entity to which the residential unit for the elderly belongs, as well as with the nurse in charge of the institution.

Following this visit, and when asked if there were failures in the response to the outbreak of Covid-19 in that Nordeste home, Pedro Soares recalled that "initially, the knowledge about Covid-19 was scarce, so it is difficult for us to say," but argued that the facts should be ascertained, "because above all people died, and we should understand why.”

On whether the home was able to respond to the outbreak of Covid-19, Pedro Soares warns that the home in Nordeste "is another one in the Azores where it is urgent to hire more nurses. We are talking about 51 to 52 patients for five nurses distributed throughout the day.

According to the Nurses Association, a team of at least 12 nurses is needed – a number presented to the head of Santa Casa –, so that there is "greater control of all healthcare, greater quality, and above all greater security for all the patients of the institution," he explains.

Twelve is therefore more than double the number of nurses working in the institution and that only guarantees "the minimum", as Soares recalls that during the outbreak there was a reinforcement in the nursing home of the Island Health Unit to respond and reorganize procedures.

Pedro Soares recognizes that "it is difficult for the institution" [to hire professionals], but warns that "the time has come to provide the necessary conditions to the region’s health institutions – and this is, in our opinion, one of the conclusions that can be drawn from the pandemic.”

Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Nordeste has announced, in the last few months, the need to hire a nurse. Pedro Soares explains that the difficulty in hiring nursing professionals is related to the conditions offered by these private institutions, like Misericórdia do Nordeste. "A nurse in a home has a basic salary of 800 euros, when the law states that a nurse at the beginning of her/his career earns 1201 euros," he says. And, also for this reason, "there is a high turnover in this type of institution, because the contractual conditions offered to nurses are weak and keep falling short.”

Pedro Soares also points out that the problem of hiring nurses under employment programs such as Estagiar L persists in the Azores, "by keeping nurses away from these institutions.”

From the visit and "the thorough survey we are undergoing in the field of nursing care," the president of the Nurses Association in the Azores stresses that "the home in Nordeste is creating all the necessary conditions and paying special attention to a possible second wave, as well as to patients, while respecting programs and guidelines”. But he admits that "there is need to finetune some procedures, particularly with regard to users in Covid and non-Covid areas, specific issues that are urgent but also relatively easy to correct".

50 infection cases and 12 deaths

The first case reported in the home of Santa Casa da Misericórdia do Nordeste was that of an 88 year old patient, who contracted the infection at the Hospital do Divino Espírito Santo, in Ponta Delgada, through contact with a health professional.

Overall, in the residential unit of Nordeste, 50 cases of infection by the new coronavirus were registered, among users and employees, and 12 dead.

The Regional Health Authority determined on May 5th the closure of the Nordeste elderly home.

On June 6, the President of the Republic, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, visited the home, praising the performance of health professionals.