The Supreme Court rules that Madrid had no obligation to medicalize residences

At the time, Leganés communicated to the Community of Madrid the extreme seriousness of the situation in two residences, due to the lack of health personnel and because it was impossible to care for Covid-19 residents due to lack of testing. .

In their order in response to Leganés’ appeal, the magistrates defend that there was no obligation to transform senior centers until they became “medical care centers.”

The Community of Madrid defended that it always acted correctly, and that it provided the necessary assistance, without there being a legal obligation to transform the residential centers into health care centers, since this assistance was provided through referrals to reference hospitals.

The opposition has criticized that these referrals were not in fact carried out, based on a draft protocol that limited these transfers for older people in worse physical or mobility conditions.

The Superior Court of Justice of Madrid dismissed the appeals filed by the municipalities of Leganés and Alcorcón, and upheld the actions of the regional government. The Supreme Court rejected Alcorcón’s appeal and processed Leganés’s appeal. In it, the Leganense city council demonstrated against “the inactivity of the Ministry of Health of the Community of Madrid regarding the adoption of measures, development and execution of the provisions of Order SND/265/2020, of March 19”, which is the state order that indicated the measures to be taken in residences during the pandemic.

The Supreme Court rejects the appeal alleging that “it does not follow that the Autonomous Community should undertake a benefit activity consisting of providing the means to senior centers to convert them into medical care centers, since it is limited to establishing indicative criteria to decide on the referral.” hospitable.”