Care homes had same advice

I AM writing in response to the Prime Minister’s recent comments about how he believed many care homes did not follow proper procedures on coronavirus.

As a chief executive of a charity that delivers complex care and rehabilitation to clients in nursing and care homes, when the lockdown was first declared, I had assessed the risk and decided to close the hatches 10 days before lockdown.

This was based on best advice to me at the time. The central advice for the first few weeks was confused and that was expected as this was a changing world both, environmental issues and progress of a disease we all knew little about.

So what did we do? We restricted staff going home, working elsewhere, limited visits to homes, sent staff to work at home, isolated staff we felt at risk, stopped families visiting, brought our own PPE, we got supplies in ready for isolation, changed our IT systems so communication to external world happened easily, we held daily meetings to check on progress and review data, advice and expert views.

We ensured anyone that came from hospital, before testing was so available, was isolated for 14 days in one room with the same staff only supporting them, we brought, at inflated costs, hand sanitisers, test kits, PPE, all in the absence of the first plans and any money.

The NHS has had rightful praise but the social care teams need equal praise; we all had the same risk and the same transmission happened in hospital as in care homes.

We see ourselves as part of the NHS pathway and are proud to be that. Don’t isolate us even more now. We made decisions based on science advice and risk assessment isn’t that what you did? Karen Deacon, CEO, Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation for Disabled People