FEARS OVER ‘RUSSIAN ROULETTE’ CARE HOMES
Stricken homes up 50pc in 4 weeks amid second wave warning Concern as staff wait up to ten days for Covid test results
ELDERLY Scots in care homes are being put at risk in a game of ‘Russian roulette’ over testing, bosses have claimed.
Major delays to test results for staff mean that those without symptoms could be unknowingly
spreading coronavirus to vulnerable residents.
One care home boss said workers are having to wait an average of five to seven days for results, with some cases taking as long as ten days. In a further threat to those in their care, one in five staff members who are tested gets ‘inconclusive’ results.
Robert Kilgour, executive director of operator Renaissance Care, said he feared a second ‘tsunami’ of infections in care homes.
Scottish Government figures show 78 care homes have seen positive tests – 50 per cent higher than in
the middle of last month. Nicola Sturgeon also raised ‘serious concerns’ about a backlog at Scottish test centres operated by the UK Government.
This, she said, may have been caused by increased demand following the return of schools in England after the summer holidays.
Figures published yesterday showed an additional 70 positive cases in Scotland but the First Minister said this may not be a ‘complete’ picture. In other developments yesterday: n Rules restricting gatherings to a maximum of six people from two households came into force.
■ Police were formally handed powers to enter homes and break up gatherings breaking the rules.
■ Miss Sturgeon urged Scots not to spy on neighbours and instead leave it to police to deal with flagrant breaches.
■ Pub, restaurant and hotel bosses said they have seen a wave of cancellations since the new rules were announced, and warned of the threat to jobs.
■ Extra restrictions banning visits to other households in seven local authority areas in the west of Scotland were extended for at least another week.
Mr Kilgour warned that test delays could trigger a deadly second wave in care homes. He said: ‘They are playing Russian Roulette with the lives of the vulnerable elderly residents. This is inexcusable and is a real insult to those who recently tragically lost their lives, their families and friends.
‘I fear a second tsunami wave hitting care homes through asymptomatic staff because of the delays in test results.’
He said his 1,000 staff are waiting an average of five to seven days for results – and in the most recent week, 0 per cent of results were ‘inconclusive’. This means the test has to be repeated.
The rise from 5 care homes showing positive cases last month to 78 is also causing concern within the industry.
Donald MacAskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, told BBC Radio Scotland that the majority of cases will be down to staff who are off because of testing positive. He said: ‘From the end of August, that figure has gone up and it will continue to go up and we will put our older citizens in care homes at a real point of vulnerability unless we suppress the virus in the community.
‘There are (staff members) who have been tested who are waiting seven days for their test results to come back and are working in that time. We need testing to work.’
Scottish Labour health spokesman Monica Lennon said: ‘It is vital that the UK and Scottish governments work together to ensure Test and Protect works effectively. The current performance is nowhere near good enough.
‘Care home residents were badly let down at the outset of the pandemic with tragic consequences and lessons must be learned.’
Miss Sturgeon said she had ‘serious concern’ over the ‘backlog of results’, and had raised her fears with the UK Government, which provides the majority of testing capacity in Scotland.
She also claimed UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock had proposed limiting the number of slots available for testing in Scottish mobile and regional test centres but he had been persuaded not to do so.
A senior UK Government source said: ‘It is disappointing that the First Minister has decided to play politics with the pandemic. Her claims are wrong.
‘We have been working with the Scottish Government through the weekend to ensure they have the support on testing they need.
‘The First Minister should get her own house in order before blaming others.’
IT is welcome that the Prime Minister will scrutinise the contentious sale of Arm Holdings, a gleaming jewel in Britain’s tech crown, to another foreign predator.
The world-leading smart microchip pioneer, which Theresa May’s government inexplicably allowed to be flogged, is being offloaded from a Japanese to a US firm for £31billion.
Yet Arm was nurtured by the UK’s goldstandard research universities and the British taxpayer.
At the very least, the new owners should honour commitments to invest in workers and R&D at its Cambridge HQ. If not, ministers should seek to block the deal.
How many more of our cutting-edge firms will be snapped up by the highest overseas bidder before we correct this colossal failure of industrial strategy?