We’ve had 4 Covid deaths in one care home... staff are upset and in tears

CARE HOMES BOSS TELLS OF EMOTIONAL TOLL ON WORKERS WHO BUILD CLOSE RELATIONSHIPS WITH RESIDENTS

A NORTH Wales care home owner has told of the terrible emotional anguish felt by staff after four of his residents died from suspected Covid-19.

Mark Bailey, managing director of Fairways Care, said some workers were so distraught they’d been given access to counselling.

So far he has spent £100,000 trying to protect his five North Wales homes since the pandemic began.

But despite his best efforts, there have been five Covid-19 cases at the Tŷ Cariad Dementia Care Centre in Abergele. Four of the patients have since died.

A further three residents at the Fairways Nursing Home in Trearddur Bay, Anglesey, have also displayed the symptoms.

Mr Bailey said the collegiate structure at Tŷ Cariad, where residents stay in semi-autonomous “households”, had helped contain the outbreak there.

Even so, half the residents in the affected household had been lost.

He said it was a difficult time for the staff who cared for them.

“It’s not like being in a hospital where you look after somebody for a few days,” said Mr Bailey.

“In nursing and care homes, they’re really very genuine relationships that are built.

“The staff are close to these people and love these people, so this has taken a huge emotional toll.

“There’s been lots of tears and upset. We have been providing the staff with access to counselling but they are devastated.”

Mr Bailey fears the huge financial pressures caused by the coronavirus crisis will force many smaller care providers out of business.

Costs were going “through the roof” in a sector that was in a fragile state before the outbreak hit, he said.

Fairways, which has five homes in Conwy, Gwynedd and Anglesey, employs 400 staff and provides care for 240 people.

Just for protective equipment, the business has spent £60,000 on masks, £3,500 on sanitiser and £2,000 on thermometers.

“We’ve also had extra staffing costs,” said Mr Bailey.

“In total we have spent an additional £100,000 – and counting.”

Last week Cardiff awarded Wales’ 64,000 care staff a cash bonus of £500 each to thank them for their work during the crisis.

Yet Care Forum Wales (CFW), which represents more than 450 social care providers, claims the country’s care sector remains chronically under-funded.

It was high time the issue was properly addressed by the Welsh Government, local authorities and health boards, said Mr Bailey.

“If they don’t, the £500 payment will be an empty gesture because many care homes will go out of business,” he said.

Three of the five homes operated by Fairways provide dementia care and, according to Mr Bailey, the funding model for this is totally inadequate. This provides for 28 hours of care per client per week – but in reality the cost of providing “good” dementia care is 20% higher, he said.

In terms of size, the care sector in Wales is nearly double that of the NHS, providing 20,000 beds compared to 12,000 in hospitals.

“It strikes me that the NHS is the national religion and nursing homes have traditionally been the national bogeyman,” added Mr Bailey.

CFW chairman Mario Kreft previously predicted that, without extra funding, half of all care homes in Wales could go bust after the Covid-19 pandemic.