The government's terrible performance on care homes
One of the worst aspects of this whole affair is the reckless way in which the government failed to protect residents and workers in care homes: to date, it's that 16,000 residents of care and nursing homes have died so far, compared with fewer than 3,000 in Germany and none in Hong Kong, despite Door Matt's claim that a protective ring was thrown around care homes. The truth, in fact, is that government chose to prioritise testing in the NHS over that in care homes.What seems to have happened is that, in order to protect hospitals from being overwhelmed by covid-19 cases, they were urged to move all possible patients out into the community or, where necessary, to care homes. The guidance issued said that "Unless required to be in hospital ... patients must not remain in an NHS bed ... Based on these criteria, acute and community hospitals must discharge all patients as soon as they are clinically safe to do so. Transfer from the ward should happen within one hour of that decision being made to a designated discharge area. Discharge from hospital should happen as soon after that as possible, normally within2 hours. (COVID-19 Hospital Discharge Service Requirements, 19 March 2020).There doesn't seem to have been any requirement to test patients for covid-19 before discharge, and in fact policy (announced on 28 April) is to test care home staff and residents only once, unless the person subsequently develops symptoms - and MHA, the largest charitable provider of care homes, has reported that tests of nearly 2,700 staff and residents found at least one asymptomatic carrier in every location tested.So, rather than throw a protective ring around care homes, the government has left them to cope on their own without proper protection. That's a real scandal!
Richard Carter ● 2357d14 Comments ● 2356d