Madrid Ex-Official Admits Nursing Home Lacked Staff for COVID Protocols

Carlos Mur, a former Madrid health official and practising psychiatrist in Andorra, testified via videoconference on Monday before a judge at Madrid's Court of Instruction No. 23, acknowledging that the Amavir Valdebernardo nursing home lacked adequate medical staffing to implement protocols aimed at limiting hospital transfers for elderly residents during Covid-19's first wave.

The 180-place facility in southeast Madrid, where resident Ángel Armingol died on 2 April 2020 without referral to Gregorio Marañón hospital, had medical services limited to mornings and afternoons, with no coverage at nights or weekends. It recorded 87 deaths between March and June 2020. Prosecution lawyer Alejandra Jacinto said Mur confirmed the patient selection protocols—restricting hospital access for many elderly—applied only to fully medicalised centres, a condition not met at Amavir Valdebernardo due to insufficient healthcare professionals.

Mur, who previously led mental health at Madrid's SAAS service and served as general director of socio-health coordination under Isabel Díaz Ayuso's government, admitted signing the protocols but denied authoring them. He described a lengthy clinical version drafted by 20 geriatricians under Javier Martínez Peromingo, who had previously testified against them as discriminatory, and a shorter one prepared by a geriatrician and an intensivist. In later comments to Altaveu, Mur clarified he "coordinated, reviewed, signed and sent" the documents to Madrid's deputy health minister, emphasising incomplete medicalisation stemmed from a shortage of staff without faulting colleagues. The 40-minute closed-door hearing featured questions from the judge, prosecutor and his lawyer; neither Mur nor his representative addressed reporters afterward.

This marked Mur's first appearance as an investigated party in probes into Madrid nursing home deaths, after earlier refusals on procedural grounds. The court authorised remote Zoom testimony from Andorra. The case, focused on Armingol's death, proceeds individually amid broader inquiries, with a pending appeal to consolidate them. No convictions have resulted.

Victim groups including Marea de Residencias and Verdad y Justicia welcomed the testimony as evidence of unequal healthcare access, staging a protest outside Madrid's courts on Monday to demand accountability.