Care home staff left waiting for results
DELAY PUTS PATIENTS AT RISK OF EXPOSURE TO VIRUS
CARE homes are waiting up to eight days for the results of Covid tests – putting residents and staff at greater risk of exposure.
The M.E.N. has spoken to care home bosses who say the major delays – nearly trebling the Government target of ‘up to 72 hours’ – are causing them stress and anxiety as they brace themselves for a potential second wave.
The Department for Health and Social Care said it was working to expand laboratory capacity.
The delays have sparked calls in the industry for care home workers to be treated with the same urgency as health workers when it comes to testing.
Holli Taylor, manager at Bickham House in Bowdon, home to 23 residents, said: “Testing is a nightmare.
“I’ve got staff who are carrying on working while they wait for results because they have no symptoms and they could have the virus and we wouldn’t know until it’s too late.
“We do all our testing on a Tuesday and this week we got some results on Thursday, some at the weekend and the rest on Monday – the day before we were due to test again.
“It’s causing a lot of anxiety.” Holli added: “I believe our testing should be in the same category as the NHS. It’s a two-way street – our residents are going into hospital and residents come here from hospital, so we should have the same priority as the NHS.”
Matthew Callaghan, director of Bowfell House care home in Urmston, which had an outbreak during the first wave, would also like to see residential testing moved to Pillar One, reserved for health workers and seriously ill patients and carried out in Public Health England labs – as opposed to its
current Pillar Two status, done by public sector labs for the wider population.
Matthew said: “Results have been taking up to eight days to come back as opposed to 72 hours.
“I understand why the NHS is prioritised and the queue has to be there but until they move us to Pillar One and put us on the NHS list, we are going to have to wait with everybody else.”
He currently has two staff off work – one whose child was sent home from school with symptoms and now has to self-isolate, and another whose mother works in a school where there’s been close contact with a confirmed case.
Matthew added: “There is a genuine risk that care homes will not be able to operate safely because of the lack of staff who are required to self-isolate because of delays in getting testing.”
Matthew says he feels the home and staff are in a ‘better place’ than they were in March and April when the pandemic first hit the sector.
But he added: “You are never ready for a situation that makes people so ill and has the potential to take life.”
Martyn Davies, manager at Urmston Manor, has waited seven days for results on three occasions in recent months.
However, he has stopped short of calling for care homes to be given the same status as the NHS, instead simply asking that the Government hold true to their commitment of giving them the same level of service as the general public.
He said: “All we are asking is for care homes to get treated the same as the general public. If you ordered a test to your house you could expect the results in 72 hours.
“We shouldn’t have to wait for seven days.
“It’s just that fear of the unknown constantly for staff. When you are working in a social care setting, people will get poorly for numerous reasons and without your test results back in a timely manner, you are always questioning whether it’s Covid. That causes a lot of stress. You are just living on a knife edge all the time.”
He added: “We need that same level of courtesy you would get in your own home – this is the residents’ own home.”