Ragusa: They abused elderly and disabled people, eight investigated

By order of the Public Prosecutor's Office at the Court of Ragusa, the Carabinieri of the NAS of Ragusa, with the collaboration of the Carabinieri of that Provincial Command, have given execution of an enforcement order of precautionary measures issued by the Preliminary Investigation Judge at the Court against eight subjects, two of whom were subjected to the personal precautionary measure of house arrest and six to interdiction measures, against the managers and some employees of a facility engaged in the care and custody of elderly and disabled people, seriously accused - according to the state of the documents and in the current phase of the proceedings, in which the adversarial procedure with the accused has not yet been established - in competition with each other of the continuing crime of mistreatment, abandonment of incapacitated persons and unlawful practice of the medical and nursing profession.

The investigations, coordinated by the Public Prosecutor's Office of Ragusa and conducted by the NAS of Ragusa with observation, shadowing, inspection services and through technical telephone and environmental interception activities, have allowed us to delve deeper into the'illegal conduct of the suspects in managing the nursing home, within which 29 (twenty-nine) people were hosted, in excess compared to the accommodation capacity of the structure and cared for by understaffed and unqualified staff which, especially at night, administered in the absence of a medical prescription hypnotic drugs, with the sole purpose of numbing and therefore being able to manage the guests of the facility with a reduced staff and thus limiting management costs.

Investigative activity, falling within the scope of services arranged at national level by the Carabinieri Command for the Protection of Health of Rome, in agreement with the Ministry of Health, aimed at monitoring the correct management of social-assistance structures dedicated to hosting the weakest sections of society, is arose from a report received by the NAS of Ragusa from former employees of the facility and regarding the unworthy conditions in which the elderly were forced to live.

From the complex of circumstantial evidence it would be serious anomalies emerged in the management of the nursing home, aimed at maximizing profits to the detriment of the hygienic, health, functional and organizational conditions of the facility, with inappropriate health care for the guests. They would also have been found numerous cases of oppressive and demeaning behavior towards the elderly (often forced to sleep in rickety, folding beds), carried out through insults, screaming, pushing, abandonment, administration of psychotropic drugs.

Finally, committed systematically, the crime of unauthorized practice of the medical profession by one of the owners of the facility, who arbitrarily modified the prescriptions or inserted drugs (often with psychoactive action) in the therapies of guests, as well as Nursing abuse by employees which approximately administered, even though they do not have a specific professional qualification, provide medicines to the guests entrusted to them.

At the end of the activities the preventive seizure of the entire health and social care facility for the elderly and disabled who are the object of the investigation, with the appointment, by the Judge of Preliminary Investigations, of a special judicial administrator. All the accusatory hypotheses, currently shared by the Judge of Preliminary Investigations in office, will have to be confirmed when the adversarial process between the parties is established, as provided by law.