Coronavirus: Care homes to get extra help from NHS as government accused of not acting quickly enough

‘There was no attempt at the outset of this pandemic to shield the sector caring for over 420,000 vulnerable people and mitigate any risk’

Care homes are to receive increased support from the NHS to help cope with Covid-19 (Tom Maddick/SWNS)

All care homes across England will be given enhanced clinical support by local hospitals and GPs from Friday to shore up the sector against the coronavirus as criticism of the government’s handling of the crisis increases.

The National Care Association said government advisers should apologise for being too slow to act, for not testing staff and residents in homes and diverting protective equipment to the NHS while patients with Covid-19 were sent out of hospitals into care homes.

All nursing and residential homes will have a named clinician, either a local GP or other specialist, to support the medical needs of residents. Homes will be given equipment, such as pulse oximeters, to help monitor patients remotely with plans for regular “virtual wards” to help teams of specialists assess each patient.

All GP practices have been told they must be involved in the service and hospitals have been told they must accept admission of patients from care homes where appropriate.

A letter to GPs and NHS community trusts, from NHS England earlier this month, outlined the need for homes to be given pharmacy support to receive supplies of drugs as well as help monitoring the medication of residents. There must also be “clear and consistent out-of-hours” support for each home.

The new service has been brought forward from October to this month, because of the scale of the impact of coronavirus on care home – with a third of homes, more than 5,100, reporting outbreaks.

Ministers have faced mounting criticism for not recognising the threat Covid-19 presented to care homes and their residents.

The board of the National Care Association, which represents care home providers, said today: “There was no attempt at the outset of this pandemic to shield the sector caring for over 420,000 vulnerable people and mitigate any risk. Indeed, the decision taken was to requisition all PPE for the NHS thereby abandoning care homes completely and so adding to the risk factors for carers and residents alike.”

It said prices for items like masks increased 400 per cent adding: “Why was no effort made to address this in March?”

The NCA added: “Despite consistent lobbying, the decision was taken by government not to test staff or residents in care homes whilst actively discharging patients out of the NHS, untested, into social care settings.”

Almost two thirds of providers are reporting to the NCA that local councils have yet to pass on extra funds made available by the government during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The NCA said government advisers should be “apologising for being too slow to respond to the pleas of the sector for testing of staff and residents from the outset, for creating a shortage of PPE by diverting it all to the NHS and for not releasing funds to the frontline quickly and efficiently”.

In its 50-page roadmap plan for the UK to relax lockdown restrictions, the government said: “While still too high, the daily number of deaths of people in care homes in England has been falling for the past fortnight. The majority of care homes still have been protected from having any cases and the government will continue to strengthen the protections against infection of care home residents.”

At the end of April, the government re-started testing in the community and said by 6 June, every care home for the over 65s will have been offered testing for residents and staff.

Ministers have also launched a new online portal to help care homes arrange deliveries of testing kits.

Minister of State for Care, Helen Whately, said: “Care homes are on the frontline in the fight against Covid-19 and we are determined that staff have everything they need to keep themselves and their residents safe.

“Testing is a crucial part of this. It helps prevent and control outbreaks and means steps can be taken to reduce the spread the virus and protect the most vulnerable. By prioritising thousands of tests for care home staff and residents, we can target our national testing capacity in the areas and care homes with the greatest need.”