Why did some care homes end up in crisis – and not others?

A STUDY into why certain Tayside and Fife care homes have seen more coronavirus deaths than others could help save lives, researchers hope.

The Dundee University work will look at data from all local facilities over the past year in an attempt to limit further tragedy.

Since March last year, there have been 424 care home deaths in Tayside and Fife.

Some local homes, such as South Grange in Monifieth and Lomond Court in Glenrothes, saw fatalities in the double figures.

Others, meanwhile, did not see a single outbreak or death.

How could this happen?

Well, that’s exactly what the study hopes to find out.

It will look at the characteristics of homes, including the type of residents who stay there.

It will also assess some more surprising criteria, such as a building’s design and age.

On an operational level, it will look at how policies on hospital admissions and discharging residents altered as government approach to testing changed.

It’s true most care home residents have now been vaccinated and should be safe, but no vaccine is 100% effective.

The woman behind the study, Dr Charis Marwick, is an expert in infectious diseases at Dundee University’s School of Medicine.

“It’s been completely devastating for the sector,” she says.

“What we want to do is look at it and say, ‘what can we do differently?’ Was it just the area they were in had more Covid in the community?

“Or, for example, is there something about older buildings versus newer buildings?

“Is there something in relation to the size of a home and whether a bigger one is split up into smaller units?

“We’re looking at the care homes themselves, although this isn’t an architectural study.

“We’re not going to be able to get into the nitty-gritty of building design and make particular recommendations about that.”

Care homes were advised to shut in March 2020 as the pandemic began to take hold in the UK. Despite this, there were major outbreaks across the country and many care facilities were overwhelmed.

Across Scotland, 7,619 people with a positive test have so far died (as at yesterday) and a third of these have occurred in care homes.

The 424 to have occurred locally is made up of 66 in Angus, 110 in Dundee, 165 in Fife, and 83 in Perth and Kinross.

Controversies include the fact patients were discharged to care homes from hospitals, both without having been tested and after testing positive.

Although Dr Marwick will look only at Tayside and Fife homes, she believes the research could have much wider significance.

“Our data is local, so the immediate relevance is Tayside and Fife, but many of the findings will be applicable beyond,” she said.

“There has been some work on death rates among care homes and how they varied over the pandemic.

“A lot of these studies are only looking at cases of Covid rather than residents or homes which weren’t affected.

“That’s what makes this one