Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
CARE HOME TEST FIASCO
Thousands wait as toll rises Tories ‘too slow to protect’
HUNDREDS of thousands of vulnerable care home residents and their carers are still waiting for coronavirus tests more than a fortnight after they were promised them by the Government.
As few as 5% of those in care homes have been tested so far and the Government has set a target of testing all residents and staff by June 6 – more than five weeks after the Health Secretary announced the plan.
Experts believe that more than 20,000 residents have now died from the virus and by the start of this month 40% of virus deaths were taking place in infected homes.
On April 28, Health Secretary Matt Hancock promised: “We will be rolling out testing of asymptomatic residents and staff in care homes in England.
“This will mean that anyone who is working or living in a care home will be able to get access to a test.”
But officials have admitted that tests on 400,000 residents and their 1.5 million carers number in just the tens of thousands – meaning that only between 1% and 5% of people have been tested.
Labour leader Keir Starmer grilled Prime Minister Boris Johnson yesterday over 10,000 unexplained deaths in care homes – on top of 10,000 confirmed coronavirus deaths – and accused the Government of being “too slow to protect people”.
He said: “The ONS records the average number of deaths in care homes. The last five years, the average for April has been just over 8,000. This year was 26,000 – three times the average – 18,000 additional deaths.”
Announcing an extra £600million for infection control in homes, Mr Johnson said: “Since the action plan began we are seeing an appreciable reduction, not just in the number of outbreaks but the number of deaths.”
Nadra Ahmed, executive chairman of the National Care Association, revealed testing is still “patchy”.
She said: “I have spoken to somebody in Norfolk who told me ‘I have got an outbreak and they are not coming to do it [test]’. I’m at a loss.
“They are the people who set the guidance, they decided to requisition all the PPE, they are the ones who decided they won’t be testing in homes, they are the ones who decided to discharge people without tests.
“Now they are trying to deflect what happened back to a sector that is on its knees. I’m really cross.”
One relative yesterday blasted the Government for its handling of testing in homes. Rob Linley’s mum Ellen, 90, is a great-grandmother, beling looked after by Palms Row Health Care, Sheffield, where 19 residents have died of Covid-19 with 60 positive tests in their three homes. He believes that thou