CZECH REPUBLIC: Tens of suspicious deaths investigated in Slovak senior home

. NITRA, Western Slovakia / ČTK | 20 July 2009 A Slovak prosecutor's office is investigating dozens of suspicious deaths of elderly people in an unofficial social care home in Hronovce, west Slovakia. Medical care is not provided in the facility and its clients allegedly live in undignified conditions, said doctor Lubomir Sevcik, but he did not specify how many people died there lately. Juraj Szebeni, director of the old people's home, rejected these accusations. Sevcik said seriously ill elderly people who need regular medical care stay in the home. "We have information from a client who told us that she had not seen a doctor for two months," he said. The problem lies in legislation that does not clearly specify who is authorised to look after elderly and seriously ill people, he added. The facility in Hronovce where some 30 people live has no licence for a social care home, and this is why the authorities have limited possibilities to solve the clients' situation, regional office's social care section head Jozefina Vlckova said. The region dealt with the first complaint against the elderly people's home in Hronovce in 2007. More similar facilities are operating in the region, Vlckova said, but she did not elaborate. Szebeni wants to file a complaint against Sevcik for slander. He dismissed the information about more than 100 people who allegedly died in the facility past year. He said 22 clients died last year and 16 this year in his senior home. The clients officially live in the facility in Hronovce as tenants and they pay an equivalent of 10 euros a day for services. However, a prosecutor has charged Szebeni and his wife with usury. According to the charges, they gained a house worth 26,555 euros from one of the clients who died a couple of days later. [rc] Copyright 2008 by the Czech News Agency (ČTK).