Coronavirus: Care homes threatened with losing insurance cover for accepting Covid-19 patients

Exclusive: Watchdog issues alert over pandemic impact on homes and residents

The Care Quality Commission has raised fears that providers could go out of business (Reuters)

Care homes that take patients who test positive for coronavirus could lose their insurance cover, the care watchdog has said – meaning sick residents may be forced to move homes.

The Care Quality Commission said it knew of more than 10 care providers who had been told they would lose their insurance cover if they knowingly accepted coronavirus patients, while other providers have been unable to renew their employee and public liability cover.

In a new report published on Tuesday, the CQC also raised fears that social care providers could go out of business following the impact of the coronavirus outbreak and warned the government it needed to do more to join up services.

It said: “This was a sector under pressure even before the pandemic. It is having a significant impact on the financial viability of adult social care services.

“The troubling financial reality for some providers is that they may now face a shortfall in people using their services due to increased deaths and not being able to admit new admissions.

“Also, some providers are struggling financially with the cost of personal protective equipment [PPE], including having to pay inflated costs to source what they desperately need.”

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It added: “We have heard concerns over insurance companies informing providers that, if they knowingly take Covid-19 positive patients, they are in breach of their insurance.

“Some providers that need to renew their insurance have been unable to do this anywhere. There is a risk that they may have to move residents elsewhere if this can’t be found.”

There have been more than 12,500 deaths of care home residents since the coronavirus epidemic started.

The regulator said the impact of this large number of deaths meant its inspectors were now finding that care home managers are “suffering burnout and extreme anxiety” with many distressed due to “multiple deaths and financial worries”.

The CQC has previously warned over the state of the health and social care system and said on Tuesday: “What the Covid-19 crisis has further highlighted is both the resilience and the vulnerability of the system that cares for people who use services.

“There needs to be a greater collective effort nationally and locally if we are to tackle Covid-19 and the impact it is having on local communities across the country.”

In its new-style Covid-19 Insight report, the CQC said data showed about 36 per cent of all care homes had been affected by the virus while one-fifth of home-care providers have reported looking after at least one patient with coronavirus, equivalent to around 1,179 providers. In London the figure was even higher at 27 per cent.

The regulator warned that of those who responded to its survey between 2 May and 8 May, 6 per cent of home-care agencies in London had only enough PPE for staff to last two days or less; 28 per cent of agencies in London and the northwest had only enough PPE to last up to a week.

It said: “There have also been instances where the wrong items have been delivered or the quality of items was poor.”

CQC inspectors have also been forced to intervene and help to arrange loans of PPE between providers to ensure people could meet immediate needs.

The body added that testing of staff and residents in care remained a major concern: “There is an ongoing need for clarity about who is leading on testing and where to go for it.”

The CQC itself had stepped in to coordinate testing for social care, booking more than 25,000 tests before the Department of Health and Social Care took over to set up a new online portal to help providers to book tests.

The CQC also warned many home-care providers were reporting large numbers of staff absences due to Covid-19 with an average of 9 per cent across England.

“We have heard that staff being off sick or self-isolating has led to some providers not being able to accept people,” it said added: “We have been hearing about some local authorities stepping in to support providers where they have significantly reduced staff numbers.

“Managers of smaller providers are having to choose whether to self-isolate or continue working due to the levels of staff sickness.

“Morale is low in adult social care, and care staff have felt undervalued compared with their healthcare counterparts. This has also played out in practical terms, for example priority access when shopping for their clients.”

The CQC also said it was worried about the number of excess deaths occurring that were not Covid-19 related.

It said: “The additional deaths being recorded in England are clear evidence of the wider effects of the virus, as the health and care system has had to respond and reshape the way it provides care and treatment. We have particular concerns around people not being able to access services for non Covid-19 related issues.”