Geriatrician accused as author of the 'protocols of shame' in Ayuso's residences

The case of the 'protocols of shame' in Madrid's nursing homes adds a new name to the courts. The Court of First Instance and Instruction number 5 of Arganda del Rey maintains María Teresa Vidán Astiz, head of the Geriatrics Service of Hospital Gregorio Marañón, as an investigated party, after Carlos Mur, former general director of Sociosanitary Coordination of the Community of Madrid during the pandemic, pointed her out as the person who would have initially presented the document.

Vidán's statement was scheduled for this Tuesday at 10:30 a.m., but it has been suspended after her appearance in the case and the request for postponement to prepare her defense. The appearance had already been postponed in April due to an error in the judicial summons, which has caused new anger among the families of the victims, who have been demanding accountability for more than six years for what happened in Madrid's nursing homes during the first wave of Covid.

The Arganda procedure is part of the cases opened after the collective complaint filed in October 2024 by 109 relatives of people who died in nursing homes. The accusations investigate an alleged crime of discriminatory denial of healthcare provision, understanding that those protocols prevented or limited the referral of sick elderly people to hospitals during the hardest months of the pandemic.

Mur declared before the Court of Instruction number 37 of Madrid that he signed the initial protocol "as a technical endorsement and validation to support professionals in decision-making." In that same statement, he assured that the text had been "initially presented" by "an expert geriatrician like Dr. Vidán" at a meeting held on March 15, 2020, at the Ministry of Health and at the Sermas Support Table.

Families denounce another delay

The associations Marea de Residencias and 7291: Verdad y Justicia have received the suspension with indignation. They consider that the case is progressing too slowly and that each postponement increases the wear and tear on those who lost their relatives without, in their opinion, it having yet been explained who decided to apply criteria that left thousands of elderly people out of hospital care.

“It is unheard of that, once again, the delaying tactics of those under investigation manage to delay the action of justice,” denounced 7291: Verdad y Justicia. The association speaks of a growing “sense of impunity” and calls for an exhaustive investigation into the origin, signature, distribution, and actual application of those documents.

The figure accompanying this case continues to weigh on Madrid politics. Families attribute the lack of hospital transfer of 7,291 elderly people who died in residences during the pandemic to the protocols. The Community of Madrid, presided over by Isabel Díaz Ayuso, has always refused to assume direct political responsibility for those decisions, while families maintain that there was discrimination based on age, disability, and residential situation.

Mur, Peromingo, Busca and Burgueño

The judicial investigation had already placed several health officials of the Madrid government from 2020 under scrutiny. In different procedures, Carlos Mur, his successor in Sociosanitary Coordination, Francisco Javier Martínez Peromingo, the then head of SUMMA 112, Pablo Busca Ostalaza, and Antonio Burgueño, an advisor appointed by Ayuso at the beginning of the health crisis, are listed as investigated.

The versions of Mur and Peromingo have opened a new avenue for the accusations. Peromingo went so far as to describe the first versions of the protocol as “discriminatory” and stated that he conveyed this to Mur. Mur, for his part, maintains that he merely signed documents that he did not fully agree with. This contradiction has led families to expand their actions in up to 60 courts in the Community of Madrid to request an investigation into a possible crime of administrative malfeasance.

The Provincial Court of Madrid has already endorsed in one of the cases that the former high-ranking officials can be investigated for malfeasance. This move has given judicial breathing room to the families, who for years have denounced dismissals, delays, and a scattered investigation across different courts. The new indictment keeps the most uncomfortable case for Ayuso since the pandemic alive and once again focuses on a question that the victims continue to repeat: who decided that thousands of elderly people should not be transferred to a hospital when they needed it most.