Care homes revolt: Worries nursing home bosses defy ministers’ calls and refuse to take in hospital patients who haven’t been tested for coronavirus
- Care home chiefs defying Department of Health rules aimed to free-up beds
- Rules say negative tests for coronavirus not needed before transfer to homes
- But some care home bosses are now refusing to take patients without a test
- Health Secretary Matt Hancock has pledged to review the transfer guidelines
- Learn more about how to help people impacted by COVID
Care homes are openly revolting against the Government’s ‘reckless, dangerous and immoral’ demand that they accept patients with suspected coronavirus.
Bosses are defying Department of Health instructions that they must take elderly patients who have been discharged from hospital to help free up beds for acutely sick patients.
The guidelines said some of these patients may have Covid-19, whether showing symptoms or not, and that negative tests were not required before transfers into homes.
Coronavirus has already torn through care homes across the country killing scores of vulnerable residents, with the Alzheimer’s Society warning at least half are reporting cases.
Bosses are defying Department of Health instructions that they must take elderly patients who have been discharged from hospital to help free up beds for acutely sick patients. Stock image
But ministers have been accused of ‘crimes against the elderly’ for denying care homes coronavirus tests – making it extremely hard to contain outbreaks – and thousands of dementia patients are said to be at risk of being ‘abandoned’ to the disease, the Alzheimer’s Society warned. The Government is also facing demands to publish daily coronavirus care home death figures after claims there could be hundreds more fatalities than official statistics show.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock has pledged to review the official rules which oversee how patients are transferred between hospitals and care homes.
‘I can’t sleep at night’: Care home manager troubled over lack of protective equipment
Care home manager Nicola Rowland has said she couldn’t sleep at night because of worries about securing PPE.
Park Manor residential home in Ipswich has received a one-off delivery of face masks from the Government but is no longer receiving direct supplies of gloves, aprons and masks.
Miss Rowland said she had spent hours scouring the internet for items but complained prices were ‘sky high’.
Suffolk County Council received a PPE delivery from the Government last Wednesday and stock was sent out to the care sector.
But a council spokesman said it was having to prioritise protection for ‘frontline staff’.
The Department of Health says it has delivered 7.8million PPE products to more than 26,000 care providers.
But Rachel Beckett, chairman of Wellburn Care Homes, said they were already facing a ‘critical situation’ even before the ‘dangerous and morally wrong’ Government call to take untested hospital patients.
‘I’m sure you’d be hard pressed to find one care home provider in the UK that feels comfortable with this outrageous and reckless request,’ she said.
‘I have a duty of care to my residents, to their loved ones and my staff. How can I with good conscience admit any patient back into any of our homes, when we have no idea if they have Covid-19 or not?’
Miss Beckett is refusing to admit new residents until they have been tested negative for the virus. She said: ‘To expect us to comply with these instructions is tantamount to playing Russian roulette with the lives of our most vulnerable.’
Andy Geach, head of Shedfield Lodge care home in Hampshire, is also refusing to accept patients in such circumstances.
He said: ‘It’s very frustrating because we really want to help free up beds in the hospitals. ‘All we are asking for is a test on release from hospital, then we would be keen to help, but without that we cannot do it as we have a duty of care to all the other residents and staff. This is a major issue.’
Almost 100 care home residents are already known to have died from coronavirus, but the true figure is unknown because daily figures released by Public Health England relate only to NHS hospital fatalities. Government guidance also says untested new residents can be admitted from their own homes even if they are showing symptoms of the disease.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured) has pledged to review the official rules which oversee how patients are transferred between hospitals and care homes
Jayne Connery, who runs Care Campaign for the Vulnerable, said: ‘We are getting calls from families who are beside themselves. They are being told they can’t go in and see loved ones with dementia even if wearing full safety equipment and yet at the same time the homes are taking in patients with Covid-19.’
At the Government’s daily press conference yesterday Mr Hancock pledged that testing would increase. He said: ‘Last week we were able to open up testing to staff in care homes. Throughout this there’s been the availablity of testing with a clinical basis in care homes.’
He added: ‘Making sure we expand that testing capability both for staff and for residents – including this very difficult issue of patients leaving hospital – we are addressing that.’