Covid-19: retirement homes have been forgotten in Belgium, according to Amnesty International
Staff and residents greet their families at Christalain retirement home on April 17, 2020, in Brussels, during confinement.
kenzo tribouillard / AFP
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4 min
Amnesty International publishes a very harsh report on Belgium.
The NGO accuses the Belgian public authorities of having abandoned long-standing retirement homes: training deficiencies, lack of personnel, lack of adequate funding.
Problems that caused a real disaster, in particular during the first confinement linked to Covid-19 where the authorities had their eyes riveted on hospitals and neglected retirement homes, or "seniories" as they say in Belgium.
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With our correspondent in Brussels,
Pierre Benazet
In Belgium, the elderly were forgotten in retirement homes and left to die there, says Amnesty International's damning report.
Lack of care, no visits from relatives or doctors, sometimes even lack of food or water.
In Belgium, 61% of deaths due to Covid occurred in retirement homes, while for Wallonia and Brussels, for example, only 10% of the elderly population lives there.
Too many ministers of health, too many levels of decision without hierarchy between them did not help to make valid decisions for the whole country, according to Philippe Hensmans, director of the French section of Amnesty for Belgium.
“
It took a long time for the ministers, who are regional ministers, to make the decision to write and say at some point
:
there cannot be discrimination, you cannot prohibit people from nursing home to enter hospitals, each must be examined individually.
And it took a long time when a lot of directions, and sometimes the paramedics themselves, understood that we had to avoid as much as possible to let the elderly into hospitals, which resulted in the death of many people. between them.
"
And following the publication of this report, Amnesty received this Monday new testimonies from staff of retirement homes, they believe that the conditions of care of residents are still dire.
Belgium has again become in recent days the most bereaved country in the world, reported to its population.
With nearly 14,500 dead for 11.6 million inhabitants, the Belgian death rate is again higher than that of Peru.
► Also to listen: Covid-19: in Belgium, nursing staff under pressure
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