Care organisation is appealing for volunteer help in coronavirus fight

A LEADING care organisation is appealing for former nurses and other staff to volunteer to help them beat the coronavirus epidemic threatening the residential care sector.

Pendine Park looks after 450 residents at its eight homes in Wrexham and Caernarfon, employs more than 800 staff and has been in business for over 30 years but director Gill Hughes believes even its resilience could be tested by the disease.

She said: “We are running a big organisation but the fact is no-one knows how many of our own staff will fall ill but we do know there are already issues in some parts of Wales.

“We wish to appeal to former staff from the Pendine family who might want to come and help – they could be nurses or other staff or they could be people new to the care sector who just want to help by taking the tea tray round or answering the phone. We’re in a war and the enemy troops are massing, they’re in London and they’re heading out across the country and they’ll be here in a week or two.

“The social care workforce is not exactly brimming over in numbers so we can only imagine what we’re facing but we’re looking for volunteers willing to help us keep our residents safe and well and happy.

“As we move from the delay phase into mitigation we’re getting by as best we can and when the fighting really starts we’re going to be depleted in numbers and then we’re going to need help.”

Social care has been promised some of the £5bn fund announced in the recent Budget to fight coronavirus but the government has been criticised for its lack of further action to shore up the sector.