Care home risks

There is no concrete evidence that discharging patients from hospitals into care homes increased the risk of coronavirus outbreaks among residents.

Evidence from MHA, the UK’S largest charitable care home provider to the UK Public Accounts Committee, stated that “it’s very difficult not to see that the only real way that Covid could have come into our homes is through staff picking it up, just through the community contacts they would have had”.

MHA say they paid to test their own staff and the Health and Safety at Work Act legally requires employers to protect their workers and others from getting hurt or ill through work. Clear advice on masks and personal protection equipment was given to care homes in March.

A summary of the Public Health Wales research published by the Welsh Labour Government said initially there seemed to be a link between outbreaks and discharges, but when the size of the homes was factored in the risk diminished and Welsh health officials said “there was no additional frequency in the number of outbreaks occurring in care homes following discharges when compared to no discharges”.

As Scotland’s Chief Nursing Officer said, people were only discharged into care homes after clinical risk assessments

and where infection prevention and control guidance were in place.

Shestressedthatpeoplewere discharged to care homes “in partnership with social work departments and with the care home, who needs to agree they have appropriate room and staffing and the ward themselves would need to agree that person was fit to go to the care home”.

MARY THOMAS Watson Crescent, Edinburgh