24 died in Bray nursing homes
HOMES WERE ‘SCREAMING FOR HELP’ AS 40 DIED OF COVID-19 ACROSS REGION
A TOTAL of 24 people had died of Covid-19 in nursing homes in Bray by last Tuesday, May 26. Ten of those were in one nursing home.
These 24 deaths were among 40 people in homes across Co Wicklow and Shankill to have died of the virus.
Fianna Fáil spokesperson for Health Stephen Donnelly, has said Wicklow’s nursing homes were left ‘screaming for help’ as they battled the Covid crisis.
He said the newly established Covid Committee has heard of nursing staff having to use painters overalls and borrow goggles from schools to use as PPE.
‘ There were four-week delays in testing and they had no voice on NPHET or even on the sub-committees looking at nursing homes,’ he said.
According to the reports, there were 1,030 deaths in 167 facilities across Ireland.
The figures include those who died with both suspected and confirmed cases of Covid-19.
Deputy Donnelly said his work on the Covid Committee had painted a ‘dark picture’ of how Wicklow’s nursing homes were dealt with by the State.
A total of 40 people had died of Covid-19 in nursing homes in County Wicklow and Shankill by last Tuesday.
This is according to figures published by the Irish Times last week, which they obtained from the HSE.
Fianna Fáil spokesperson for Health Stephen Donnelly, has said Wicklow’s nursing homes were left ‘screaming for help’ as they battled the Covid crisis.
Deputy Donnelly said that the newly established Covid Committee has heard of nursing staff having to use painters overalls and borrow goggles from schools to use as PPE.
‘ There were four week delays in testing and they had no voice on NPHET or even on the sub-committees looking at nursing homes.’
He spoke as reports emerged there were 31 deaths at six different nursing homes across County Wicklow.
Those included the deaths of 24 people in Bray, with 10 in just one nursing home in the town, and five people in the rest of the county. Additionally, nine people were reported to have died from the virus in facilities in the Shankill area.
These were among a total of 1.030 deaths in 167 facilities caring for older people across Ireland, including community hospitals, long-stay units, residential institutions and nursing homes.
The figures include those who died with both suspected and confirmed cases of Covid-19.
Deputy Donnelly said his work on the Covid Committee had painted a ‘dark picture’ of how Wicklow’s nursing homes were dealt with by the State.
‘Firstly, the figures contained in the media of the number of deaths from Covid in Wicklow and across the country should not have come into the public domain like that.
‘ They should have been published by the HSE. When I first raised the issue of Covid in nursing homes at the start of April I was flooded with concerned calls from anxious relatives wondering if it was a nursing home in Wicklow.
‘People had a right to know if there was Covid in a nursing home where their relative was staying and those details should have been made public,’ said Deputy Donnelly.
‘We know in early March patients from hospitals where there was Covid were moved to nursing homes without first being tested,’ he said.
‘ This was done before the proper guidance was in place for the nursing homes on how to care for those patients or before they had the PPE needed to care for them.
‘ The nursing homes in Wicklow and everywhere else were screaming for help but they didn’t get it.’
“I was flooded with calls from concerned families”