Former employee reveals abuse at Korydallos nursing home

Patients at a condemned nursing home in the Piraeus suburb of Korydallos were systematically subjected to physical and mental abuse, including being deprived of essential medication and being tied up to radiators, a former employee of the facility revealed on Monday.

“The conditions were lamentable,” the unnamed former employee said in comments to Antenna TV.

“Apart from the undernourished patients, there were others that were not receiving their full medical treatment. They were tied to radiators and to their beds on the pretext that they were being aggressive. But when psychiatric patients are not given their medications, obviously they will become aggressive,” she added, saying that she is willing to testify to the abuse she witnessed during her brief stint at the home.

She also revealed that the nursing home’s management would order staff to make sure that patients appeared well looked after during visits from their relatives, even though basic care and sanitation standards were not being met.

The nursing home has been in quarantine since Saturday after regional health inspectors found several of its 41 patients to be infected with Covid-19. All 41, meanwhile, were found to be undernourished, dehydrated and filthy, with several also suffering from scabies.

The regional inspectors responding to a complaint about conditions at the facility had to force their way into the building on Friday after finding the front door shut with a padlock.

The home had its license yanked over health violations in 2020 but the order to shut it down and relocated its patients was reportedly put on hold by a Piraeus court a few months later.