Care homes watchdog chief defends performance in pandemic
THE number of people who have died in care homes across Northern Ireland halved in a week, according to most recent official figures.
However, the statistics have been given a cautious welcome by experts who have said they do not provide the full and latest picture of what is happening in care homes.
Hitting out at the measures put in place to protect care home residents during the Covid-19 pandemic, Professor Gabriel Scally issued an excoriating attack on health officials.
Among the failings identified by the public health expert was a delay in the provision of personal protective equipment and widespread testing in care homes.
He was also particularly critical of the decision to admit residents with Covid-19 to care homes, describing it as a “very bad idea”.
He said: “I’ve really been quite shocked and surprised by the revelations that have been coming out about the slack approach with care homes.
“Clearly care homes were ill prepared for the pandemic, there was a lot of talk early on about protecting older people, of shielding them, cocooning them and other warm phrases, but that just didn’t happen.
“I think it is a very, very serious failing and I do also wonder about the fact that so many deaths have taken place in care homes and whether those people received the very best care that they could have.
“We can’t blame the staff and we can’t blame the patients, all we can do is look to the people in charge of handling the outbreak who should have been taking the decisions to stop this virus.”
In a further damning assessment, Prof Scally, president of epidemiology and public health at the Royal Society of Medicine, said officials were too slow to stop the spread of Covid-19.
He said: “If only at the very beginning, we’d put in place a full lockdown and done more testing and tracing, we would be through this by now.
“We would be where Australia is now where they have opened their bars again.”
Prof Scally also criticised the pace at which people are being trained to work in contact tracing, which he said will play a crucial role in lifting the lockdown in Northern Ireland.
His comments come after Health Minister Robin Swann said he is launching a pilot scheme which will see care home staff moving into their premises to help reduce the spread of the virus. Despite this, he has not given a commitment to ban the admission of people to care homes when they are infected with Covid-19.
Figures from the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) have revealed that 36 people died in care homes in the week ending May 8 — down from 72 the previous week. However, it is not known how many of the 37 people who died in hospital during the week ending May 8 were infected in a care home.
Leading virologist Dr Connor Bamford, from Queen’s University Belfast, said the gap in information and the fact that the figures relate to a week ago make it difficult to assess the current situation in care homes.
“I think it shows that we’re moving in the right direction, but it is difficult to say anything with any certainty,” he said.
Looking ahead, he said
it
is crucial that health officials ramp up testing and contact tracing to slow the spread.
“I think we’re very much at the mercy of this virus now,” he continued.
Earlier this week it emerged that Mr Swann is facing potential legal action over calls for a public inquiry into the handling of the care homes during the pandemic. The Department of Health was contacted for response.
THE interim chief executive of the RQIA — the watchdog body which regulates Northern Ireland’s care homes — last night defended his organisation’s performance during the Covid-19 pandemic.
By last Friday, 269 people in Northern Ireland’s care homes had died from causes related to Covid-19 — almost half the total for Northern Ireland.
Speaking to the BBC, RQIA chief Dermot Parsons said he thought his organisation had helped save lives.
Mr Parsons revealed that the RQIA had carried out just 11 physical inspections of care homes during the Covid-19 crisis, as well as what he called “other types” of inspections in three further homes.
In April 2019, the RQIA carried out 68 inspections.
“The focus has been on providing detailed guidance and carrying out careful assessments with trusts and with other partner bodies on the preparedness of homes and seeing what support they required to assist them to care for people who could get infected with coronavirus,” he said.
Asked for his views on the low level of inspections during the crisis, Mr Parsons said “I feel we have done the right thing.
“We have followed the directions from the Chief Medical Officer to minimise footfall in care homes, and we have made sure that the care homes were as prepared as possible to deal the effects of this appalling pandemic.
“I’m confident that by doing so, and helping them negotiate their way through the complex guidance that there is in the sector at the moment, that we have contributed to saving lives by tackling the biggest issue that faces the care homes at this time.”
The interim chief executive said that complaints from residents’ relatives had fallen away during the pandemic — because they were not allowed into the homes.
Mr Parsons said he was currently exploring with the Department of Health how the RQIA could “restart inspection safely”.