CORONA CRISIS, PEOPLE DIED DUE TO LACK OF TESTS IN CARE HOMES Charity boss says residents ‘abandoned’
OUR appalling care homes death toll could have been halved if the Government had rolled out regular testing in them at the start of the pandemic, a charity boss claims.
Mark Adams, chief executive of Community Integrated Care, believes thousands would have been saved – and has slammed plans for weekly tests in England as “too little, too late”.
To date, Office for National Statistics figures show 19,394 care home residents have died with Covid-19.
And Mr Adams’ claim suggests some 10,000 could still be alive if a robust testing regime had limited outbreaks.
Accusing the Government of abandoned residents, he said: “If the priority had been, ‘Let’s just test everybody that’s coming into contact with vulnerable people’, you probably would have more than halved the number you lost in a care home, and maybe even made it a fraction of what it has been.
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“The Government clearly started off thinking, ‘We’re all going to get this, there are going to be about 20,000 people who die’. They’re mainly going to be old people who potentially might have died anyway and they might even save the NHS and local authorities money if they pop their clogs early’.”
Mr Adams spoke after regular testing was finally announced for care home staff in England. He said without twice-weekly testing, care homes and supported living homes would be left completely unprepared for a second, third or fourth wave of the virus.
He stressed that twice-weekly testing is needed to stop infected staff bringing Covid-19 into homes – with residents tested by local public health nurses rather than carers.
Mr Adams said: “Dealing with vulnerable and confused people who might have dementia, that’s a horrendous experience for them to go through. You really need to have experienced nurses doing the testing now.
“Our organisation has 100 nurses across 450 locations. But a great many social care environments are run where you don’t have nursing staff – you have highly trained care workers.
“The test has a 15% failure rate just on the science. But then if you add the human error into that there’s a risk. The ideal scenario is public health teams would have a dedicated team who visit care homes.”
Mr Adams warned the toll could rise much higher if the Government fails to also boost testing in supported living environments. He said: “We talk about the 450,000 in nursing and care homes. There’s 850,000 in supported living.
“The fact that they’re in a different building doesn’t mean the complexity of their condition has changed. Every time the Government pats itself on the back about gradually getting its act together five months too late, they’re talking about care homes and nursing homes – they’re not talking about this army of people who are waiting to have support themselves.”
Charities have also demanded beefed-up testing for agency staff. The ONS found infection rates were higher in homes that used agency staff who worked across several sites. Professor Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, added: “Regular and routine testing is critical if we are to garner a better understanding and keep at bay this virus. This initiative needs to be rolled out to all care homes, including adults with learning disabilities and also supported living.”
The Department of Health and Social Care said: “During this outbreak we have kept our social care guidance under constant review. We have delivered millions of PPE to the social care sector. As a result, 57% of care homes have had no outbreak at all.
“From July 6, regular testing for staff and residents will start, beginning with homes for over-65s and those with dementia, before being extended to all adult care homes.”