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According to one of the leading figures in the industry, the true scale of the coronavirus crisis that is burning in nursing homes may never be known.
Professor Martin Green, head of Care England, condemned the government’s pandemic strategy and said the sector could still be months away from a peak in cases.
In a scathing attack, he said, “There is no form of follow-up mechanism, and unless we have evidence, it will be unclear who died of Covid-19 and who did not.”
Professor Martin Green says the full impact of COVID-19 on care homes will never be known.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick yesterday insisted that care homes were a “particular focus” with half the deaths across Europe in those places.
And with the expectation that deaths in the home will soon exceed those in hospitals, a head of a charity compared the battle of the virus to a war zone and was furious: “They are lions led by donkeys.”
As exhausted care staff is forced to ask for funding, personal protective equipment (PPE) and tests, The Mail on Sunday may reveal:
- Some doctors refuse to enter nursing homes to certify deaths
- There is a persistent shortage of PPE and evidence
- Hundreds of households face financial crisis, yet speculators are raising EPP prices by as much as 500 percent.
- The government’s additional £ 1.6 billion for welfare councils are not reaching the front line
Professor Green, whose organization represents hundreds of independent care service providers, ominously warned that the peak in the community could be weeks or even months away.
While many NHS staff members go to care homes to treat patients, (above), some physicians refuse to go to care homes and certify coronavirus deaths.
“We are very far away because, despite what the Secretary of Health says about being considered a priority, we clearly were not,” he said.
“At the beginning of this pandemic, the only narrative was ‘protect the NHS’ and what was manifested was that we had interruptions in the supplies of PPE: we had to withdraw primary care entirely from nursing homes.”
He added that the ministers’ genuine desire to help had been hampered by numerous agencies and quangos “unable to make quick decisions.” Local councils, which fund adult social care, have received an additional £ 1.6 billion, bringing the total to £ 3.2 billion.
But some local authorities are only willing to spend it on subsidized poor residents rather than on private funds.
The head of Care England criticized the government’s mechanism for tracking the virus.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick said Saturday that nursing homes are a “unique” approach for the government.
“For years, local authorities have been absorbing private payers, who are the people who pay the real cost of care,” said Professor Green. “When the time comes for the crisis, they abandon them and say:” It has nothing to do with us. “”
Dr. Jennifer Dixon of the Health Foundation charity said that deaths in nursing homes are increasing at a higher rate than hospitals and “if this trend continues, it is possible that the number of deaths per week in nursing homes care can beat hospitals. “
Eileen Chubb, founder of the whistleblowing charity Compassion in Care, described how staff coped with the EPP shortage. “It is like working in a war zone but having the most horrible general on the planet in charge,” he said. “They are lions led by donkeys.” Mike Smith, director of Trinity Homecare in Surrey, said trying to get urgent protective equipment was “like a treasure hunt where you end up with no treasure.”
Mike Padgham of the Independent Care Group (ICG), which represents 150 providers across North Yorkshire, said the price of the masks had skyrocketed from 17.5p each to £ 1. He said: “I am fighting a war on two fronts. There is the Covid war and then there will be a battle for financial survival. “
A third of British care homes have been affected by coronavirus with more than 4,000 registered deaths, leaving loved ones concerned about the lives of their older relatives
About 45 percent of ICG households say they are in danger of bankruptcy. Professor Green said this was representative of the national figure, which means that about 60,000 vulnerable residents in 1,500 homes are at risk.
A third of Britain’s care homes have now been hit by Covid-19. Officially, 4,343 residents have died, but the person-centered software, which supplies clinical systems, estimates the actual number to be more than 17,500.
Steve Gibson of the Stainton Lodge Care Center in Middlesbrough has seen 17 residents die, but only two underwent a coronavirus test. He said: “Some GPs put pneumonia on death certificates, some GPs have symptoms similar to Covid’s.”
Vivek Kotecha of the Center for Health and Public Interest said: irá It will continue to burn through care homes. The only way to reverse it would be to test and isolate quickly, but none of that is in place. “
The Health Department said last night that it was “working day and night to deliver the PPE” and that the tests were intensifying.
