They’ve done so little to protect elderly Anguish of

A colleague tests positive. Hairs on my arms and neck stand up

A MUM-OF-TWO today lays bare the trauma of working in a care home hit by Covid-19.

The 34-year-old, who works in a mixed nursing-residential home in the North East, tells GRACE MACASKILL how 11 residents have died in the past two weeks.

Her home usually sees one death a month. Here is her moving diary...

Tuesday, April 14

Tonight is the first 12-hour shift of the week and I’m feeling anxious. Two residents we didn’t expect to die have passed away in the last few days.

Another three have fallen ill and we suspect Covid-19.

It coincides with the admission of a lady from hospital at the start of the month. She died within a week of arriving.

One of our ladies has a cough but no temperature. Could it be the virus?

I put it to the back of my mind and try and get on with things, but it’s really tough. Our manager is off sick with a cough and about half of my 50 colleagues are ill or isolating.

We have new residents coming in from hospital and they haven’t been tested either. Could they be carrying?

We regularly check on the three residents we suspect have Covid-19 but the only PPE we have are flimsy aprons, latex gloves and paper-thin masks. They have been donated by local businesses because we couldn’t find any to buy.

We can’t get GPS to come into the home to diagnose either because they are only doing video calls. It feels like we have nobody to turn to.

Wednesday

One of our nurses calls the GP again and he tells us to contact Public Health for testing.

Today, a local business made us some visors so at least that’s something, but I worry we will run out of masks.

I go in to see one of the elderly men in his 70s suspected to have the virus. He’s normally really independent but he needs help getting ready for bed. He is barely able to stand.

We have another resident in his 80s who always gets out of bed a few times a night. Tonight we hear nothing from him.

I go to check on him, and he’s flat out. I start to worry. He’s such a lovely