Care Homes and Covid19
The pandemic caused care homes to take in residents without the normal precautionary tests and assessments.
It is false to say that the care homes did not follow government policy, actually care homes followed policy very effectively.
Care homes know how to deal with infection rates since they manage them each year.
Care homes have worked hard to ensure that the homes remain just that, homes.
The normal process for taking people into care homes is a careful discussion between the resident, any family or representatives, the care home and the health care provider.
In the pandemic, the government was in such a panic to empty the NHS that they forced care homes to take residents at high speed without tests and without proper assessment. On top of that, the new residents were not allowed any visits from family and were being confined to their rooms by government policies. Being isolated among strangers causes distress and illness in itself, without the added stress of an infection. Especially when the person has dementia.
‘Did the government simply fill care homes to #SaveTheNHS?’
The Prime Minister stated that care homes didn’t follow policy.
In fact, they were very good at following all the policies set out for them. One government policy that worked against them was prioritising the supply of PPE to the NHS, not the homes that had taken thousands of elderly NHS patients to ‘save the NHS’, leaving hospital wards, and the Nightingale hospitals, empty and echoing. An element of blaming others by the government is shown in the identification of the NHS as something the government wants to save, and unfairly casting off the care homes as being in the hands of private sector operators who profiteer and failed to provide the correct equipment. Health ministers are responsible for the health of all the nation, not just those who happen to be in an NHS hospital at any moment.
Care homes KNOW how to deal with infection. They do it every year.
The infection rates in care homes were caused by a number of things, many of which were completely out of control of the homes themselves. The homes did not control the availability of PPE or testing kits. In many cases they could not control which residents they were being asked to admit. Care homes already have infection control policies and are very experienced in dealing with winter vomiting virus or flu every year. They are regularly inspected for infection control and cleanliness. The truth is the UK government did not prepare them and then behaved as if the care homes should have anticipated something that the government had ignored, and even dismantled its mechanisms for planning for it.
‘At the end of the day, a care home is a home’
Over a lifetime of working in and visiting facilities for older people, both in the UK and abroad, and judging design competitions for new build care homes, I continue to see creative things being done to support older people in care homes in general design. Still in order to protect residents from infection, but to allow them the essential human contact with family that they need, care homes have ended the lockdown with a variety of inventive ‘visitor pods’. These vary from simple popup gazebos of the kind with chairs placed far enough apart and fresh air that can reduce the risk of transmission. At the top of the class are mini summer houses. Beautifully decorated wooden cabins, they include tables and chairs and a Perspex screen so people can have the feeling of an afternoon tea at a shared table, with the resident and family on opposite sides where they can see and hear each other clearly.
Care homes deserve more support and credit for the amazing work they do and how they have risen to the challenge of Covid 19.
If you would like more information, you can buy my book Dementia, the One Stop Guide or Care Homes: When, Why and How to Choose a Care Home. I am available for consultancy for families or organisations. And if you have any further queries or questions, or suggestions for something you’d like to see me write on, please contact me via the Contact Page
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