‘They lock us up like dogs’: Six detained for abuse of patients in Bulgaria nursing home

This undated image shows the exterior of an illegal hospice in Bulgaria.

SOFIA - Six people have been arrested in a Bulgarian village on suspicion of beating and drugging patients in a private nursing home for older people and those with dementia or other mental health problems, authorities said on Monday.

As elsewhere in Europe, incomes in Bulgaria have failed to keep pace with the rising costs of elderly and nursing care, and a few providers have exploited vulnerable patients with sub-standard or even abusive levels of care.

“The scariest thing we saw was people who were subjected to constant physical abuse - tied up, beaten, there is also evidence of drugging,” Ivan Krastev, deputy minister of labor and social policy, told Nova TV.

On Friday, police raided a hospice with 75 residents in the central village of Yagoda, arresting five people on suspicion of mistreating patients and another on Sunday.

They are charged with unlawful imprisonment and obstruction of free movement, failure to provide due assistance to a person in danger, physical violence, and causing bodily harm, district prosecutor Tanya Dimitrova told reporters on Monday.

Eleven patients were taken to a nearby state hospital, while the remaining 64 were either taken in by relatives or accommodated in state-run facilities.

Bulgarian media reported that some patients had been found with their feet tied, under the influence of narcotics or locked in rooms without proper hygiene, bedding or contact with the outside world.

“They lock us up like dogs. They give us two slices of bread and in this heat they don’t open the door to let air in, as they’re afraid we’ll escape,” 70-year-old patient Milka Raeva told BTV TV.

“They were four very difficult years. God helped me. Many people died hungry, without doctors, with wounds, tied up.”

Bulgarian media reported that the facility was charging 990 levs (US$580) per month per room. Another illegal nursing home in Govedartsi with 23 patients was closed down on Monday.

(Reporting by Georgi Slavov; Writing by Ivana Sekularac; Editing by Kevin Liffey)