CARE HOMES: ‘WE WARNED THE HSE’

• Owners of two facilities with 20 deaths speak out • ‘Our pleas to test all residents were denied’ • 41 more die as devastating toll reaches 571

TWO nursing homes in which up to 20 residents have died after contracting coronavirus have blamed bans on blanket testing at the start of the pandemic for aggravating the spread of the disease, the Irish Mail on Sunday has been told.

The policy of refusing such tests has been hastily reversed as the Government scrambles to address rising numbers of deaths in long-stay care centres.

But last night the owners of two homes with clusters told the MoS the tragic, multiple fatalities at their facilities could have been limited had blanket testing been available.

They spoke out as Ireland’s Covid-19 death toll reached 571 with the announcement yesterday that 41 more people had died. Another 630 new cases were confirmed plus 148 older cases by a lab in Germany. The total number here now stands at 14,758.

However, Health Minister Simon Harris has told the MoS that he hopes to see schools opening for some days from May 5, and even some clubs allowed to have a ‘kickabout’.

Nursing home owners James Keeling and

Lucy Grillet both asked for, and were denied, blanket testing, as soon as they suspected the virus was in their nursing homes. ‘They were unwilling to blanket test,’ Mr K eeling, the CEO of Ashbourne’s Kilbrew Nursing Home told the MoS. ‘ We w anted t o d o a w ide g roup and they said no – only if they’re showing symptoms. I think they should blanket test and it needs to come back faster. It’s your only chance t o i solate,’ h e s aid.

With 70 inhabitants, the Kilbrew home h as s een C ovid-19 d eaths r ise into d ouble f igures w hile a n umber of s taff h ave a lso b een i nfected.

Mr K eeling s aid h e n ow h opes t he outbreak has run its course in his nursing h ome. ‘ I e xpect t hat e veryone in the building was exposed and it would look at this stage that those w ho w ere g oing t o p ass a way from i t h ave d one s o,’ h e s aid.

A nearby home in Navan, the Millbury Nursing Home, has seen seven d ie f rom t he v irus w hile t wo people, who are understood do be doing w ell, a re s till b eing t reated i n the home. Test results are awaited on 10 other residents. Owner Lucy Grillet w elcomed t he G overnment’s new focus on testing all home r esidents a nd s taff.

‘This is something I certainly would h ave w elcomed t hree t o f our weeks a go w hen I s poke t o a m ember o f t he p ublic h ealth d epartment about b lanket t esting,’ s he s aid.

‘It would have really determined the n umber o f c ases w e w ere d ealing with at a very early stage.’ Instead, when she sought help initially, M rs G rillet w as t old i t w as too early to do blanket testing, a decision t hat m ay h ave c ost l ives a s the l imited t ests g ranted t ook u p t o three w eeks t o r eturn.

‘If that had happened sooner we would perhaps be having a different conversation,’ she said. ‘That would h ave m ade a h uge d ifference to o ur c urrent s ituation t oday.’

Announcing yesterday’s latest coronavirus f igures, C hief M edical Officer D r T ony H olohan s aid: ‘ This week the National Public Health Emergency Team emphasised the importance of testing in interrupting t he t ransmission o f C ovid-19 i n community residential settings including n ursing h omes.

‘This sector remains a priority for our focused attention and we will continue to monitor and support t hem t hrough t his o utbreak.’

To d ate, 6 2% o f v irus d eaths h ave been among residents of nursing homes a nd l ong-term c are c entres.

By Thursday there had been 335 outbreaks in such facilities. Of these, 186 were in private centres, and 1 12 w ere a t H SE f acilities.

The MoS can also reveal that elderly residents showings ymptoms o f C ovid-19 a t t he H SE’s largest care home were being cared for in an open ward with patients k nown t o h ave t ested p ositive. The residents were isolated from one another after it emerged that 11 pensioners had died in the past two weeks at St Mary’s H ospital i n D ublin’s P hoenix P ark.

While t he G overnment’s f ocus o n nursing h omes h as b een w elcomed there h as a lso b een s evere a nd s ustained criticism for the delayed response t o t he c risis i n t he s ector.

This w eek t he s ituation w as c alled a ‘national emergency’ by Dr Jack Lambert, a specialist in infectious diseases at Dublin’s Mater Hospital. Others, such as Professor Ruairi Brugha, from the Royal C ollege o f S urgeons, h ave d escribed nursing homes as ‘nests of infection’. Y et, f or t he f irst w eeks o f t he crisis t he G overnment d id n ot e ven release separate figures for n ursing home deaths – until they accounted for more than half of all f atalities.

Then o n T hursday t he g rim n ews of the 11 Covid-19 deaths at St Mary’s emerged a day after eight deaths were reported at the HSE’s Maryborough C entre i n P ortlaoise. The G overnment a nnounced a n ew testing blitz for all nursing homes on Friday. ‘The behaviour of the v irus a mong v ulnerable g roups who live in these care settings continues to be a concern,’ Dr H olohan s aid. ‘ This s ector r emains a p riority f or o ur f ocused a ttention and w e w ill c ontinue t o m onitor a nd support them through this outbreak,’ h e a dded l ast n ight.

But F ianna F áil h ealth s pokesman

‘If that happened sooner it would be different’

‘Nursing homes are a nest of infection’

Stephen Donnelly questioned why the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) had no representatives from nursing homes.

‘There has been a major blind spot in the apparatus of the State in responding to this,’ he said, adding that neither the NPHET sub-committee on vulnerable people nor the sub-committee on nursing homes included anyone from the sector.

‘That’s madness and really, really irresponsible,’ he said. ‘The group of people who were really on the front line of this have no voice and they couldn’t get access politically.’

Nursing Homes Ireland CEO Tadhg Daly criticised a HSE memo that emerged yesterday suggesting that personal protective equipment promised to nursing homes would be rationed due to shortages. He said it contradicted Government commitments and complained of a lack of consultation as a promised financial package for the sector is prepared. Aontú leader Peadar Tóibín also called for clarity from the Department of Health regarding the status of the financial supports promised to nursing homes.

‘Not a cent of that money has been paid over, nor has a process for applying for the fund been established,’ he said. Responding to the criticism of the Government response to the unfolding crisis in nursing and care homes, Health Minister Simon Harris told the MoS in an interview: ‘I think the hard and painful reality is, when you look at nursing homes or other residential care settings, it is extremely difficult to manage the virus. That’s not a reason, by the way, not to try and do it. But it is challenging.’

‘Not a cent of the money has been paid over’