Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Clashes over spread of bug to vulnerable
THE Chair of the Stormont Health Committee and Chief Medical Officer clashed yesterday over the spread of coronavirus in care homes.
Colm Gildernew was questioning Dr Michael Mcbride on the issue of the source of Covid-19 in the sector and raised concerns about whether old people should have been discharged from hospitals to the facilities.
There was a tense exchange between the pair over previous comments the CMO made previously regarding the possibility of transmission of the virus into care homes by members of staff.
Mr Gildernew raised a concern over any emphasis on “staff transmission rather than admissions from hospital” and questioned whether lessons had been learned regarding the virus being brought into care homes via hospitals.
Dr Mcbride insisted he “made no such assertion” that care home staff were a source of the virus, adding healthcare workers are “the heroes in this”.
BLAMED
Dr Mcbride said Covid-19 was a highly infectious virus and the movement of staff and others from the community introducing infection into any enclosed environment was an issue. But he railed against some media reports suggesting he had blamed healthcare workers.
The CMO also defended the discharge of older people from hospitals into care homes, saying there had “not been significant outbreaks in the hospital sector”.
There is a “vulnerability” in the care home sector, he added, due to “footfalls in and out”.
Health Minister Robin Swann said when pressed on what lessons are being learned and should have been learned from previous epidemics, there has “never been a pandemic like Covid-19” where there has been an isolation and lockdown phase.
Responding to a question from Committee member Alex Easton, the minister said there are currently 284 health service staff who have tested positive.
Mr Swann said that 11% of care home staff have tested positive whereas 17% of residents have tested positive.
The percentage of both staff and residents in care homes testing positive should fall as the extent of testing in the sector expands, he added.