By Sammie Jones
Financial problems faced by Care providers were a catalyst to several deaths in care homes during the pandemic.
An Association of Directors of Adult Social Services report concluded that a lack of testing in England accelerated the spread of coronavirus in care settings leading to so many deaths. Lack of PPE equipment and testing facilities compromised the safety of those in care homes.
It is still not clear how many patients discharged from hospitals were sent to individual care homes. What is clear is that had there been testing facilities in those care homes, a lot of lives would have been saved.
The British government says an extra £3.8 billion has since been provided to councils to fund social care.
Close contact between residents in care homes cause infections to spread quickly there, and many residents are susceptible to catching diseases.
Over 1.2 billion pieces of PPE have been delivered to health and care settings in England.
James Bullion, president of ADASS, said: “Just assuming the homes could cope, and assuming that homes had the PPE to cope, wasn’t the right thing to do.
“And that tells us that social care was an afterthought rather than a forethought of a whole system approach to discharge and that has had terrible consequences.”
He said it was right to try to move people out of hospital at that time.
But he added: “It is absolutely crucial that we learn the lesson that you can’t think about the health service without thinking about social care.”
Anita Astle, the home’s managing director says it has been a deeply distressing time, emotionally and financially.
Now with the extra costs of PPE, staffing and with care home vacancies resulting from the pandemic, a quarter say they are worried about the ability of most of the companies in their area to survive.