THREAT TO CARE HOMES
Ministers are warned that delays in staff testing could see ‘catastrophic’ second wave of coronavirus cases
SCOTLAND’S care homes are facing a deadly second wave of Covid-19 because of severe delays on staff testing, ministers have been warned.
Staff at some care homes are waiting an average of between five and seven days before they get results sent back to them, with delays of up to ten days in individual cases.
This has led to fears that staff without symptoms may be catching the virus in the community and taking it back into care homes without knowing it.
The fiasco sparked a warning that failings on testing could be as ‘catastrophic’ as the decision to transfer hundreds of patients from hospitals to care homes in the early days of the pandemic in March.
Coronavirus swept through care homes over the following months, killing around 2,000 residents.
Latest figures show the number of care homes with live outbreaks has rocketed by 50 per cent in just three weeks – and industry leaders say it is mainly down to staff testing positive.
Robert Kilgour, executive director of Renaissance Care, said his 1,000 staff are now waiting on average between five and seven days to get results back.
He said that around 3 per cent of staff who have no symptoms are now testing positive, and this hit 7.5 per cent at the height of the pandemic. He also raised concerns about one in five of his staff getting an ‘inconclusive result’ in one single week – which means they have to be retested and face another delay waiting on their results.
Mr Kilgour said: ‘I don’t have any doubt that, if this gets worse, as it seems to be doing week by week, I fear it could be as catastrophic as the hospital discharges issue.
‘If staff are working when they are positive, as opposed to knowing that they are positive and being off because it is taking a week to get their test results, then although they are wearing masks etc, there is definitely a risk that the virus could get into a care home.
‘There are examples of it in England and Scotland.
‘I don’t care whether it is the Scottish Government or the UK Government that is at fault – they are both as much to blame in my view. We don’t care where the results of the tests come from, we just want the results back quickly.
‘It is about how we keep Covid-19 out of our care homes over the next six to seven months, and one of the key weapons – probably the key weapon – in succeeding in keeping it out is having weekly staff testing with swift results. That’s what we need, that’s what we were promised and we are being let down.’
Care homes are issued with test swab kits for all staff, delivered by courier once a week. They then arrange for staff to be tested before the kits are collected by courier and sent to laboratories run by the UK Government.
Mr Kilgour said that until recent weeks, his staff had been getting results within 24-48 hours. It has gradually increased and now takes between five and seven days.
He added: ‘What we are focused on round the clock right now is how we keep Covid-19 from getting back in our care homes. Everybody has done such great work to date that it is really shameful – and an insult to those that tragically lost their lives and their friends and families – that we are in danger of sliding back into, God forbid, a repeat of what happened in early summer.
‘Everybody is blaming each other for the testing but I don’t care who is to blame – we have to deal with the situation and get this done.’
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman admitted last month that testing would have been a bigger priority at the start of the pandemic if she knew then what she knows now.
Donald MacAskill, chief execu
‘Insult to those who lost lives’
tive of Scottish Care, told BBC Radio Scotland that staff are waiting up to seven days for test results and are continuing to work while they wait.
Jason Leitch, the Scottish Government’s national clinical director, said it was an ‘exaggeration’ to suggest most staff were waiting seven days for results.
But he said there had been delays and insisted that tests should be returned within 24 hours. Nicola
Sturgeon also said she had serious concerns about the amount of time taken for people to get test results and she held talks with the UK Government yesterday.
Latest data from September 9 showed there were 78 adult care homes with current confirmed or suspected Covid-19 cases.
This has soared from 69 on September 2, 66 on August 26, and 52 on August 19.
Concerns were also raised yesterday about a survey by the Unison trade union which indicated that half of home care workers have never been tested for the virus despite visiting elderly and vulnerable people each day.
Scottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: ‘There is a lot of uncertainty among the public right now at these very concerning developments.
‘Confirmation that the virus is spreading fastest in Scotland
should focus all our attention. We cannot afford to risk Scotland’s response to the virus going off track.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘All care home staff in Scotland are offered tests on a weekly basis, which are processed through the UK Government’s testing portal.
‘Delays in testing vital care home staff are unacceptable and we have raised this as a significant concern with the UK Government. Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has issued a joint letter today with her counterpart in the Welsh Government, to seek urgent resolution from the UK Government on the testing issues in the UK system.’
A spokesman for the UK Government’s department for health said: ‘We have been doing everything we can to ensure all staff and residents in care homes are protected. There is a high demand for tests and our laboratories continue to turn test results around as quickly as possible and we plan to rapidly expand it in the coming weeks, as well as bringing in new technology to process tests faster.
‘NHS Test and Trace is working, our capacity is the highest it has ever been and our laboratories are processing more than a million tests a week.’