COVID-19: Care Sector Catastrophe Inevitable

First lets say well done to Boris for beating the Virus, glad he's through it and out the other side. Hopefully the secondary attacks from the virus won't do any harm.

I say secondary attack because in my personal experience of the virus, it seems to wane and then come back. In my case it was three times. The third time was the worst with breathlessness, chest pains and heart palpitations.

Not a nice experience, but a lot less than those people that got taken into intensive care have experienced.

Anyway, lets explore the care sector. Yesterday in the Government briefing, it was admitted that 13% of registered care homes are reported to be infected with COVID-19. That's a bloody high level given that care homes should be isolated from the population.

My Mrs is a care manager for a large charity and is currently having daily meetings with management regarding their COVID-19 response. The main focus on those meeting is PPE and guidelines around when to wear it.

Of course PPE is in short supply, although the charity does hold an amount in readiness for when a home becomes infected. This to me is arse-about-face: the emphasis should be isolation of those homes.

My personal opinion is that carers should be wearing PPE now in order to prevent bringing the virus into the home and protect the residents. There should be a barrier between carers and those being cared for. It should have been in place from day one. NOT waiting for the virus to be passed from an asymptomatic carer to residents. By then it's too late: residents who in the main have underlying health conditions will die.

As the saying goes, prevention is better than cure.

The care sector needs to get PPE in care homes and be wearing it NOW. Not only registered care homes but also supported living, domiciliary care and ANY form of community care. ALL carers should be wearing PPE as a matter of routine.

So far the government has failed to give clear guidance on this and has failed to supply PPE to the whole care sector. It seems only council-run care homes are getting PPE deliveries. The independent care homes run by private organisations and charities have been left very much out in the cold.

That has to change and change quickly to prevent avoidable deaths.