No PPE or care badges! Website for new staff pins CRASHES hours after Matt Hancock unveiled new emblem for staff while sector is still crying out for more testing and protective gear
- Health Secretary last revealed care sector badge similar to the one for the NHS
- Came as sector complained that it has not been given the same consideration
- Letter from social care chiefs mentioned ‘paltry’ personal protective equipment
A website selling badges praising carers has run out of the new pins just hours after Matt Hancock was ridiculed for unveiling the emblem.
The Health Secretary last night revealed the badge, which reads CARE, after carers up and down the country cried out for personal protective equipment amid the pandemic.
He was roundly ridiculed for creating a badge for the social care sector similar to the pin that reads NHS as care chiefs complained that they weren’t being given the same consideration as the health service.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock is pictured with the CARE badge which was revealed yesterday
The CARE badge is pictured in close-up as the sector cries out for personal protective equipment
This is the message that greeted visitors to the website this morning who hoped to buy the pin
This morning, the buying page at carebadge.org told visitors that they were unable to purchase the item.
A message on the website said: ‘Due to changing circumstances, the CARE badge CIC is not able to accept new orders at this time.’
It comes as Hancock said the Government needs ‘to do more’ for the care sector, which is why he unveiled a new plan on Wednesday.
Responding to reports of elderly residents in care homes receiving letters asking them to promise they will not ask for hospital care if they are seriously ill, Mr Hancock said: ‘It has always been the case that people are asked for their wishes in the terrible instances in which they might get very ill, especially as they get towards the end of their lives.’
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘It is a standard procedure that has happened for a long time.’
Pushed on whether it is standard procedure for all care home residents to be asked at the same time, Mr Hancock said: ‘It isn’t inappropriate so long as the decision is made on an individual basis according to the clinical needs of that person and their wishes.’
He added that it would be ‘deeply inappropriate’ if residents were pressured into signing such letters.
A leaked letter from the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) to the Department of Health and Social Care says Downing Street has caused ‘confusion and additional workload’ through mixed messages.
Adass raises concerns about testing, personal protective equipment (PPE) for workers and funding.
The letter was written on Saturday and leaked to the BBC and says early deliveries of PPE have been ‘paltry’ with more recent drops ‘haphazard’.
As care workers have repeatedly raised concerns that they are being forgotten about during the crisis, the letter has revealed that some PPE meant for care workers is being confiscated by border control then sent to the NHS.
It argues that statements from the Department of Communities and Local Government and the Department of Health on the shielding scheme for people particularly at risk from the illness have been contradictory.
Government experts found 217 of 3,700 deaths had been recorded in care homes across the two nations registered up until April 3.
The ONS statistics also showed that another 5 per cent of deaths had been recorded outside of hospitals, such as in hospices.
Separate figures showed the true number of deaths was 52 per cent higher than the count given by the Department of Health every day.
The ONS counted 5,979 deaths in England by April 3, compared to the 3,939 figure given by health chiefs on the same day – a difference of around 2,000.
The Department of Health figures are affected by a backlog in hospital recordings, meaning that hundreds of deaths are not registered to be counted.