‘Care home staff have flown under the radar in battle’
Care home manager Vicki Viles has tears in her eyes as she describes getting a call from her son Billy, whose partner is expecting a baby, to say he has been diagnosed with coronavirus.
Vicki now not only spends her days praying the disease does not enter her care home, but also worrying about her daughter, who works at Tesco and now her son, who lies in pain at his London home.
The scale of deaths caused by coronavirus in care homes is only now coming to light, after the Government released the numbers of people dying in the community, rather than just in hospital.
Figures provided by the Office for National Statistics show that care homes account for nearly a sixth of Covid-19 deaths in England and Wales.
In the county, up to April 17, 108 deaths in care homes were attributed to coronavirus. At Cedardale Residential Home in Maidstone, managed by Vicki, one resident, who was a manager at Aylesford Newsprint and was passionate about aeroplanes, died after catching the virus.
Two more male residents have died during the outbreak at Cedardale, but they were never tested and so the cause of death is not confirmed.
Another man in his 80s recovered after contracting coronavirus and four members of staff have tested positive, but are now back at work.
Ms Viles spoke to us about her staff’s fears, what should have been done sooner and why her carers, who are paid minimum wage, deserve a pay rise. Cedardale currently has more than 20 members of staff and 26 residents, most of whom have dementia.
Vicki is one of two managers, but the other, Wendy is working from home because of an underlying health condition.
Four weeks ago, when the first coronavirus case in the home was confirmed, staff were petrified. The next day about 60%of the workforce didn’t come in, with many fearing they could catch the disease and spread it to their children.
Since then, staff levels have stabilised but employees are still anxious.
Vicki, who has worked in the care industry for more than 30 years, said: “For the staff the scary bit is going home and seeing their families.
One carer has got four children and one of her kids suffers from kidney failure.
“We are still coming to work everyday, we have five members of staff walking through the door every morning and we don’t know if they are bringing it in.
“When the first resident died it was just heart breaking. It has been really hard, the girls have all put in extra hours to make sure the residents are okay, because they’re not being visited by their families.
“I think that’s the hardest bit, the families not being able to come in, but we are doing a bit of Facetime and sending photographs.”
Despite staff’s fear over catching the virus, when the hospital asked if one of the residents who had tested positive, could return to Cedardale for care, they agreed, implementing stringent infection control measures. “This is their home. And as wonderful as the NHS is, the nurses can’t give the level of one-on-one care as we can,” Vicki said.
One resident who died at Cedardale during the pandemic passed away without any family nearby, as their relatives made what must have been a near-impossible decision not to enter the home because of a pre-existing condition.
The elderly have temperatures checked twice a day and for the last two weeks, any staff who develop symptoms can be tested at a local site.