CORONA CRISIS Let empty hospitals stem the horror in nation’s care homes
Corona-stricken care home residents should be evacuated and treated in empty beds at temporary Nightingale hospitals, MPS demanded last night.
The Government was urged to save the lives of the elderly by filling up vacant Nightingale sites with OAPS from virus-hit homes.
At least 7,500 elderly residents have died from Covid-19 – despite a warning from the Sunday People three weeks ago that the care home system was a time bomb.
Now Labour’s shadow minister for care and older people, Liz Kendall, is urging the Government not to waste any more time and to use Nightingale hospitals to stop the virus spreading among 500,000 residents and staff.
The ten emergency facilities – seven in England and one each in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – have a total of 11,000 beds.
NHS England have refused to reveal how many beds are spare. But London’s Excel Centre Nightingale which has 4,000 beds has treated only 41 patients.
Ms Kendall said: “We have to provide alternative care. There’s a real urgent need to look at any spare capacity there is at facilities like the Nightingale hospitals to see if they can care for residents.
“Care home staff are being asked to do extraordinary things. They’re very skilled – but we need to make sure that care homes are not turned into hospices because that’s not what they are there for.”
Mistakes
this terrible toll of deaths. The Government must do everything to make sure they do not repeat the mistakes of the past.”
More than 7,500 OAPS are feared to have died in the UK in care homes since the pandemic hit, with a lack of PPE, the movement of agency staff between homes and years of austerity blamed for fuelling the crisis.
This week the World Health Organisation warned of an unimaginable human tragedy in care homes across Europe.
Daily figures released by the
THE Government has been accused of putting carers at risk by not testing elderly people leaving hospital for coronavirus.
Simon Davison, boss of care provider Opieka, said hospitals routinely send patients home untested. He warned:
NHS only count hospital deaths, which appear to be falling, but there are fears that the toll in care homes may soon outstrip these.
Labour MP Peter Kyle, who has campaigned to highlight this crisis, said: “I’m in touch with many care homes and they are telling me their
“The Government is pushing the problem from one sector to another. This is a very worrying trend.
“Home carers are then visiting, and risk contracting Covid-19 and spreading it.”
He believes everyone leaving hospital must
be tested – a plea that was last night echoed by the GMB union.
National officer Rachel Harrison said: “The Government originally promised all older people would be tested as they leave hospital. People are falling through the net.”