Health boss ‘sorry’ for naming home

A NOTTINGHAMSHIRE care home boss has answered concerns about a Covid-19 outbreak.

Nineteen cases were recorded in a week at St Saviour’s home in Retford.

Proprietor Dharamraj Sooriah did not agree with naming the care home publicly.

“I know it doesn’t place any blame on the care home, but people can interpret messages differently, and for those who have family members here or who are thinking about it, it should have just been referred to as ‘a Bassetlaw care home’,” Mr Sooriah said.

“Within hours it was reported everywhere and I felt this slip-up deserved an apology.”

The Care Quality Commission (CQC) rated the home as “good” in its last inspection, and for many years it has been graded as Band 5 (highest) in the Nottinghamshire County Council audit.

Mr Sooriah took over at St Saviour’s 13 years ago, and expanded the care home from 40 to 58 beds, with occupancy nearly always at 95 to 100 percent.

He said: “We test our service users every 28 days as per guidelines, and the next was due just as the outbreak hit us.

“There was one person with mild symptoms so we decided to test the whole home a week before schedule. We got a positive result and then over the period of a week that built up to 19 cases.

“Those who had it weren’t particularly unwell. But every one of them isolated in their own bedrooms for the next 14 days.

“Out of those we sadly had one death, from someone with underlying health conditions.

“But already quite a few of our service users are now testing negative, so we are hopefully over the worst.”

Jonathan Gribbin, public Health director for the county, named the home during a briefing last week. Mr Sooriah said Mr Gribbin had now apologised.

Mr Sooriah added: “I do believe there is a level of protection that came from the vaccine but also, there isn’t a single guideline that we haven’t followed. Any recommendation made today is in place tomorrow.

“It only takes one person to innocently come in with it and it spreads – but we have done nothing now that we haven’t been doing all along.”

Nottinghamshire County Council confirmed an apology had been made to the care home, its staff, residents and their families.