Health
Call to treat relatives of dementia patients like key workers | Society
Relatives of dementia patients should be treated as key workers so they can visit their family members and be tested for coronavirus where necessary, leading charities in the UK have told the government.
The heads of organisations including Dementia UK and the Alzheimer’s Society have signed a letter to the health and social care secretary, Matt Hancock, calling for visits to resume safely and for relatives to be given the same “key worker” access to care homes and coronavirus testing as staff, the BBC reported.
The letter reportedly argues the care given by family members is essential to the overall wellbeing of dementia patients, and that the social distancing restrictions have contributed to a “hidden catastrophe” in care homes, which have been closed to non-essential visitors since March.
Hancock said on Thursday that the government would be setting out details “in the next few days” of how Covid-secure care home visits could resume.
Prof Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, said a balance needed to be struck between allowing family visits and protecting care home residents from further coronavirus outbreaks.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “Families are a really important part of care delivery but at the same time you have to be really, really cautious because, as people know, care homes have been really badly affected during this pandemic.
“People living in care homes are probably at the highest risk, so if there is an outbreak of Covid-19, it has serious and very tragic consequences, so I think we have to balance the need for people to engage with their relatives and families but also we have a responsibility for the protection and safety of the people in care homes.”
He said treating relatives as key workers with regular testing could help, particularly if new tests became available soon that provided quicker results.
Clear guidance on visiting older people in care homes was needed from the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), which had told the sector it was “on its way” more than a month ago, he said.
Public Health England issues guidance stating that it was “very unlikely” care homes would become infected. The guidance was not withdrawn until 12 March.
Despite a lack of official statistics about fatalities, care homes warn that they are at “breaking point” and MHA, the country’s biggest charitable provider, says it has suspected cases in more than half of its facilities.
The Department of Health and Social are guidelines on discharging hospital patients into care homes states: “Negative tests are not required prior to transfers/admissions into the care home.”
Chief medical adviser Chris Whitty says that more than one in ten care homes (13.5%) now has at least one case of Covid-19. Whitty says: “Care homes are one of the areas where there are large numbers of vulnerable people and that is an area of risk and therefore we would very much like to have much more extensive testing.”
Testing is expanded into care homes but only for people with symptoms.
Five of the largest care home providers say they have now recorded a total of at least 1,052 deaths
Care home deaths are included alongside deaths in hospitals after a sharp rise of more than 4,300 deaths over a fortnight in England and Wales. Testing is extended to staff and residents without symptoms.
Launch of a national delivery system for personal protective equipment to care homes is hit by a delay of up to three weeks
Academics report that more than 22,000 care home residents in England and Wales may have died as a direct or indirect result of Covid-19 – more than double the number stated in official figures.
An unpublished government study which used genome tracking to investigate outbreaks revealed that temporary care workers transmitted Covid-19 between care homes as cases surged. In evidence raising further questions about ministers’ claims to have “thrown a protective ring around care homes”, it emerged that agency workers – often employed on zero-hours contracts – unwittingly spread the infection as the pandemic grew, according to the study by Public Health England.
Care leaders, unions and MPs round on prime minister Boris Johnson after he accuses care homes of failing to follow proper procedures amid the coronavirus crisis, saying the prime minister appeared to be shifting the blame for the high death toll.
On Thursday, Hancock said he wanted to find a way to help reunite care home residents with their loved ones.
He told ITV News: “People are yearning to see their loved ones and the residents of care homes get so much from visitors. It’s been a very, very long period, and that period where there hasn’t been any visiting to care homes, that’s coming to an end very soon.
“I very much hope that in the next few days we’ll be able to make this change. We’ve been very careful about it and we’ve got to get it right. We’ve got to make sure it works for each local area but I hope we can make that change very soon.”
In April, the DHSC said in a document that all “family and friends should be advised not to visit care homes, except next of kin in exceptional situations such as end of life”.
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