Short-staffed care home is taken over by the council

A PRIVATE care home in Carmarthenshire has been taken over by the local council because so many staff were off work with coronavirus.

Carmarthenshire Council has admitted that social care in the county is “straining under the significant pressure of Covid-19” as 34 care homes in the region have been affected by the virus.

As well as those with positive cases, some homes are unable to take placements as they are recovering from an outbreak. Ten care homes are now so severely affected by Covid-19 that the council has had to step in to provide support and extra staff.

While the council has not confirmed the name of the care home in question, one private facility has been taken over by the authority temporarily because of the number of staff and management that were unable to work.

The issue across the county at both council-run and private care homes is further affected by the large number of carers that have to self-isolate for periods of 10 days, something which is also impacting heavily on domiciliary care, with the council currently only able to provide “essential care”.

Carmarthenshire Council has spoken of its need to recruit temporary care workers to join the coronavirus care emergency response team in order to support residents in care homes.

So great is the need for staff it has even said that no previous care experience is needed, with full training being provided.

Jake Morgan, Carmarthenshire Council’s director of communities, said: “Over the past few weeks social care has been under significant pressure to maintain critical services. The overwhelming challenge for many homes is to maintain safe staffing levels and we are providing services and staff directly to support a number of homes in the county.

“There are a range of contingencies that we have put in place to mitigate the risk over the coming weeks and I am pleased that through the efforts of our dedicated care and health staff that the vast majority of clients who contract Covid-19 are able to make a full recovery.

“Staff across social care are going above and beyond what could be expected of them to support and protect vulnerable people, and I want to thank them personally for their continued commitment.”

Jane Tremlett, executive board member for health and social care at Carmarthenshire Council, has urged people to play a key role in protecting the most vulnerable within their communities by adhering to Welsh Government guidelines.

“Risks have been high across the sector over Christmas and will remain so until the vaccine roll-out is completed,” she said. “Thankfully, we are already seeing the benefit to those care homes who received the vaccine before Christmas.

“We are close to the vaccine having a real protective effect and I would ask everyone in the county to do their bit to prevent the spread of the virus and give us the best chance to protect our most vulnerable.”