Covid-19 testing chaos sparks fears for safety of care home residents
Staff at Renfrewshire care homes could be unwittingly exposing residents to Covid-19 as the system they use for weekly testing has almost collapsed.
Care homes in the area, which collectively saw 113 people die in the first wave of the virus, say they are “anxious” about the safety of residents as their staff wait days for results of Covid-19 tests.
Introduced in May, the weekly tests were outlined by health chiefs as a key weapon in the fight to keep coronavirus out of homes and away from the elderly.
But staff are now waiting days for results, many of which are coming back as inconclusive and, in some instances, staff are not receiving results at all.
In papers put before councillors at a meeting of the Emergencies Board at Renfrewshire Council, chief executive Sandra Black reported: “Initially, staff tests were taken and picked up by a courier on the same day and the results followed within one or two days maximum.
“However, over the past few weeks, this no longer is the case for the majority of care homes, with some also reporting that they are not receiving results for staff or experiencing an increase in the number of ‘unclear’ results returned.”
She added: “As a result, the care home managers are anxious that any delay in being informed that a staff member is positive could result in contact being maintained with residents and other members of staff.”
The news has outraged councillor Eddie Devine, who said allowing staff to continue to work in care homes without the all-clear of a test amounted to the same as allowing people to be moved from hospital to care homes without a Covid-19 test at the start of the pandemic.
He told the Express: “If you put people into homes who have Covid- 19 from outside - whether that’s staff or residents - and you haven’t tested them, it’s obvious to anyone that you will have more deaths than you would normally see in care homes.
“I know these staff, who are very sympathetic towards these old folk, will be feeling guilty that they may be bringing that into folk with low immunity.
“I would hate that to be on my conscience and that’s what people working in care homes are worried about, their residents.”
Dr Linda De Caestecker director of public health NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, told councillors at the Emergencies Board that steps were being taken to address the problem of testing, but admitted it would take three weeks to resolve.
She said: “The issue with capacity in the Lighthouse Labs, that’s the UK Government testing service, has meant that they have prioritised symptomatic people, quite rightly, but that has meant there has been a delay in the results getting to care homes through that method.
“Now what we are doing is moving all care home testing back to the NHS lab, partly to alleviate that, but also to give more capacity to the Lighthouse Lab.
“That is taking a phased approach though, so it is not going to happen immediately.
“It’s going to happen over next three weeks so different care homes will come on stream with the NHS lab at different times, but we are moving to do that and that will solve the issue.”
She added: “What I would reassure you on is we have now been doing this for many weeks and we have very, very, very low levels of positive results in care home asymptomatic staff.”
I know these staff will be feeling guilty that they may be bringing covid into folk with low immunity