CASE STUDY 1

OAK SPRINGS, WAVERTREE, LIVERPOOL

MANAGERS have warned they face being ‘overwhelmed’ by coronavirus.

Six residents have so far died, and 48 of the remaining 66 have begun showing Covid-19 symptoms – with three yesterday placed on end-of-life care plans.

A staggering 50 staff have been off with flu-like symptoms.

General manager Andrea Lyon issued an urgent plea for help earlier this week from retired medics or even the Armed Forces as a ‘last roll of the dice’.

‘We’re desperate for help,’ she said on Tuesday. ‘I only have 20 staff left to cover shifts and GPs have refused to visit the home for two weeks now.’

The state-of-the-art care home – which opened three years ago – said it had also run out of face masks.

Mrs Lyon (pictured on the right with care worker Amanda Pettitt) goes to work every day despite her husband being classed as vulnerable because he has type one diabetes.

She said ‘the phone hasn’t stopped ringing’ since her appeal as doctors and nurses offered to help.

Extra protective equipment has also been delivered, but a lack of testing makes it impossible to know which residents are infected.

‘I just get home and start crying because you can’t do it at work in front of the staff,’ she told the Daily Mail this week.

‘But we have a duty of care and we cannot let our residents down. Some of them are war veterans. They did their duty.’ At the Old Vicarage care home in Allithwaite, Cumbria, one resident has tested positive for coronavirus, with another six displaying symptoms, prompting pleas for more protective equipment.

With no testing available, manager Kamal Siddiqi said staff at the home, near Grangeover-Sands, had no way of knowing if the other residents were infected too. ‘Any help or