Care provider’s anger over Hancock’s Covid remarks
A Scarborough care provider and chair of the Independent Care Group has shared his fury at Matt Hancock’s comments regarding care homes.
Mike Padgham, of Saint Cecilia's Care Group, says the Government has serious questions to answer following comments from the former health secretary.
In diaries written by Mr Hancock and published by the Daily Mail, comments were made stating that the vast majority of infections brought into care homes were “mainly by staff ” and not from people being discharged from hospital without being tested.
Mr Hancock also wrote: “The main takeaway is that the virus is primarily being brought in by staff, not by elderly people who’ve been discharged from hospital. This explains a lot.”
The provider organisation The Independent Care Group (ICG) said the remarks defied belief.
Chairman Mike Padgham, who is MD of St Cecilia’s Care Group, which runs homes in Scarborough, Pickering and Whitby, said: “If this was the thinking at the time, then those in Government have some very serious questions to answer – to those who lost loved ones in care and nursing home and the staff who were fighting tooth and nail to protect their residents.
“When Covid-19 broke out, the Government’s first reaction was that our homes
didn’t need to do anything different. They then starved us of proper PPE while they concentrated resources on the NHS. During this time people were being discharged from hospital into care and nursing homes – without being tested – and, in my view, bringing
Covid into those homes.
“To suggest that the loss of life, heartache and serious illness caused by Covid was in some way down to the homes and their staff is an outrageous slur on those amazing, hard-working and caring individuals who gave blood, sweat and tears to keep people safe.
“If we assume that Mr Hancock’s diary entry reflects the thinking of his department at the time then that poses some very serious questions about the Government’s handling of Covid-19 in care settings.
“It certainly makes a nonsense of his public comments about throwing a “protective ring” around care homes during the pandemic.”
•Saint Cecilia’s has received a much-needed boost to its staff with the arrival of three nurses from more than 4,000 miles away.
Thanks to an innovative partnership with its local health trust, Saint Cecilia’s has recruited the nurses from Ghana.
After competing their training in North Yorkshire, the three will be ready to join the company’s nursing homes in Scarborough and Whitby.
Harriet Adzoa Anku, Yvonne Ifeyemi Sedo and Evans Sarbeng arrived in Scarborough after a recruitment process which has taken the best part of a year to complete.
Director Aaron Padgham said: “This is a very exciting moment for Saint Cecilia’s.
“It is the result of a long process which began with an application for a licence to bring in overseas staff to provide care and ends with three nurses stepping off a plane in Manchester ready to work with us caring for people in Scarborough and Whitby.”
Saint Cecilia’s is bringing in a further seven care and nursing staff from overseas in the coming weeks.