Skip to content
Spain’s care home nightmare episode artwork

Apr 30, 2020 28 min

Spain’s care home nightmare

from Crossing Continents Hosted by BBC Radio 4

Why did so many people die in just one elderly care home in Madrid? After Covid-19 smashed its way across the globe, Spain - one of the worst-hit nations of Europe - is beginning to take stock of the devastation the virus has left in its wake. Most painful perhaps, will be an assessment of how the deadly contagion was able to rip through Spanish care homes at such speed, killing thousands of elderly people. In March 2020, the alarm was first sounded in a privately run institution, Monte Hermoso in Madrid. It is a story that has stayed with the BBC’s producer in Spain, Esperanza Escribano. She was in the capital when the reports of deaths at Monte Hermoso came to light. For Crossing Continents, she joins Linda Pressly, to piece together the story of what happened within the care home’s red brick walls. Editor: Bridget Harney (Photo: Isabel Costales and her husband Ramon Hernandez. Isabel died during the coronavirus pandemic in a care home in Madrid. Photo Credit: Paula Panera)

Episode details come from the podcast's RSS feed.

Embed this episode

Ready to play

Spain’s care home nightmare

0:00 28:07

No transcript yet.

Requests help us decide what to transcribe next.

Frequently asked questions

How long is this episode of Crossing Continents?

This episode is 28 minutes long.

When was this Crossing Continents episode published?

This episode was published on April 30, 2020.

Can I download this Crossing Continents episode?

Yes. Use the download control on the episode player to save the publisher-provided media file.