CARE HOME TEST TARGET ‘IS MISSED’
MINISTERS ACCUSED
A TARGET to test every elderly care home resident and caring staff member for coronavirus by last night has been missed, a charity has claimed.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock last month vowed that all residents and carers in residential homes would be swabbed by yesterday in a bid to bring down the shocking Covid-19 death toll.
He also promised GP support for every home with a named clinical lead.
But Community Integrated Care chief executive Mark Adams said 350 of its 1,000 elderly residents had still not been swabbed, or half of its staff.
He said: “They are nowhere near. It is of little surprise that the dedicated clinical support promised is as flaky and, in many cases, as non existent as the PPE support, the failure on testing and the lack of funding for care homes.
“As ever, we hear promises from ministers of knights on chargers coming to our aid, only to find out we are left to fight Covid-19 alone.”
Sources say the Department of Health and Social Care is expected to announce in the next few days that it has met its target to test everyone in homes for the over-65s.
And from today it will start testing in other adult homes, including those housing people with mental health issues and learning disabilities.
But at the start of the week around a tenth of homes surveyed by the National Care Forum reported they had not received testing kits.
Dr Rhidian Hughes, chief executive of the Voluntary Organisations Disability Group, said: “We have serious concerns about the lack of parity in government’s approach to testing.
“We are concerned that its current programme continues to overlook some types of support for disabled people and the staff and carers.”