Nursing in Practice May/June 2020 (issue 114) | Page 6

4 NEWS
Care homes ‘facing
delayed coronavirus p
Care home directors warned adult social care had not yet faced its highest
number of coronavirus cases a week after Boris Johnson declared the UK
had passed the peak.
Social care bosses urged the Government to do more to help the
sector, after coronavirus-related deaths almost doubled in a week.
The Office for National Statistics revealed deaths in care homes related
to Covid-19 went up from 3,096 to 5,890 between the week ending
17 April and 24 April. This was an increase of 2,794 deaths.
Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group, which represents
independent care providers in York and North Yorkshire, told Nursing in
Practice on 7 May he did not ‘think the peak for care homes and the
community has been reached... We feel very much in the front line and
forgotten’.
Mr Padgham, who is also managing director at Saint Cecilia’s Care
Group in Scarborough, continued: ‘In the early days of the outbreak,
the Government didn’t think it would impact care homes very much. The
attention was on the NHS. The Government only looked to care homes
late in the day.’
He was also concerned about accessing personal protective equipment
for staff as the cost of it had become ‘enormous’. A face mask cost 17.5p
on average at the beginning of April but jumped to £1 towards the end of
the month, he said. ‘It’s not sustainable for people to carry on in the sector
without some financial help.’
George Coxon, a care home owner and director in Devon, agreed that
‘we haven’t seen the peak in care homes’ and was worried that social
care had not been supported enough in the long term, making it even
harder to tackle the outbreak. The workforce was ‘very volatile and very
transient’, he said.
Care England chief executive Professor Martin Green said the latest
ONS data showed it was important to ensure care home staff had the
correct personal protection equipment.
‘We fear that worse may be to come. It is ever more essential to ensure
sufficient PPE and testing for staff and residents in conjunction with
a long-term economic plan to ensure that the sector is adequately
resourced to cope in the short, medium and long term.’
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nursinginpractice.com May/June 2020