Shocked about death in care homes **MNHQ content warning**

[happyandsingle]

Just this.Cannot believe how care home residents and staff have been thrown to the wolves.
Everything focused on the NHS it's like the elderly didnt matter.
Feel ashamed how we treat our elderly and even if the government act now in my opinion it's to late as to many lives have been lost.
To think the goverment need to be held accountable for this.

Everybody has the right to life whether they are 95 seconds old or 95 years old. That doesn't mean that people won't die, it means that the government do not have the right to implement measures that cause the death of people, whether they are 95 seconds old or 95 years old.

They can only pay a pittance if people are willing to work for it. Why do we have to fly in Romanian fruit pickers? Because British people won't do the job. Well people (read women) are willing to work in care homes for pennies

As someone who works in end of life care it's normal to send me home or back to the care home in order to facilitate a more comfortable death. It's what many people want,hospital is possible the worst, most lonely, miserable place to die you can imagine. Laid in a small curtains area in an unfamiliar environment, alone, everyone around extremely busy, no family just strangers.

Then there is also the factor that there would be absolutely no where near the hospital capacity to admit every care home resident to hospital who was dx with covid. It's a pandemic, decisions need to be made to do the most good and whilst care home wont find barrier nursing easy we cant just abandon them because they're infected. Consider that there will be elderly patients dx with covid being discharged back to their own homes where they live alone or with another equally frail partner.

I dont see how this is the governments fault.

If people don't want this to continue then they have to accept huge increases in taxes. Or they have to care for their own relatives. Or maybe both.

Normal to send people back home to die is what that should have read. Although it's where I will choose too. When I speak with patients that I suspect are in their last days about whether they'd prefer to be in hospital, hospice or home home is the normal answer. Treatment is focused on comfort and there are excellent community teams that become involved to give the most comfortable death for a patient.

Whilst I agree with the sentiment about it seeming madness to send a patient into a care home with a dx of covid back to a care home there is absolutely no other option.

My grandma was in a care home on a unit with 18 residents. The home was closed to visitors very early on well before the official lockdown. The staff have masks gloves and aprons. So far no staff member has exhibited any symptoms. But last week 6 residents tested positive, they were isolated away from other residents. 3 residents died at the weekend including my grandma. They are assuming a resident who was in hospital and returned to the home contracted the virus during his hospital stay but because he didn’t have any symptoms or a test he returned to the home.
The care staff have been amazing they FaceTimed family members so we could say goodbye, they sat beside her and held her hand during her last hours, and then they got right back up and continued to care for the rest of the residents.

My nana is in a care home due to dementia. It closed before the official lockdown but there have been many cases of covid 19.
Official historic deaths due to covid - 19 are sitting at 13 and the care home has been in the press.
A staff member though online has claimed a further 26 have died in the last few weeks. The care home can take 88 residents so if the 26 further deaths are true that is a frightening number.
Currently some residents including my nana have tested positive for covid 19 and are being cared for by the staff.
My dad has spoken to nana on the phone and gets daily reports from the home as to her condition.
We were told by the doctor assigned to the home as soon as she tested positive that she would not be given hospital treatment If her condition declined.
Thankfully she seems to be getting over the worst, but as a family we are scared and upset about all of this.

Not all care homes are bad. My MiL was a cook at a care home until she retired at 66. She went in on Xmas day and cooked a fresh turkey dinner for the residents. My dh says even when in his teens and still at school he never had a hot Xmas dinner on Xmas day as his dm always put the residents first. He had his Xmas dinner on Boxing Day when the owner served the residents soup dh Mum made the day before, and a plate of sandwiches and mince pies and cream. She used to fetch them bits of shopping too on her day off. She was onky ever paid 50p above minimum wage. She loved her job.

@Rosie789 I'm so sorry about your gran

Many care homes are doing the very best they can for people.

My beautiful Nanny became one of the care home statistics at 4.30pm on the 29th April. She was in a private BUPA £1400 a week care home. Meant absolutely fuck all. For the past week of her life we called 3 times a day to see how she was doing. Everytime we called we were told something different ranging from no cough at all on Monday night to severe cough Tuesday Received a phone call at 12pm to say she was going down hill very fast and that we needed to send someone down. Each member of the family has someone in the household shielding. So we had a Factime call at 2pm. She was a deaf as a post and they didn't even put in her hearing aids so she could hear us. 4.30pm she had died. Hadn't seen her for 6 weeks up until that point. Normally saw her twice a week and spoke to her every night.

This was not how I wanted my nanny to die. She was the first person to hold me when I was born. I wanted to be the last person to hold her hand and give her a kiss.

To anyone with relatives in care homes. I send you all my love and support. It's absolutely shit. Our loved ones she not be dying like this 😔

but the vast majority of residents are funded by the council who are another agency we are constantly fighting with. The council pay on a wants vs needs basis

Councils don't have the money, that's why thresholds for care being provided have risen, that's why 'wants' can't be provided for.

Whatatodo am sorry to read about your Nannie but I want to categorically say that not all care homes are poor. I am a registered nurse and work in the most amazing lovely home . The residents are really well looked after and are content and happy. Luckily we are Covid free and hope to stay that way. The carers work their bollocks off working long hours for rubbish pay. Sometimes we don’t always get something right and the rapid decline of your darling nannie might have wrongfooted the staff . Remember until very recently absolutely no one in the medical profession had ever treated or cared for a patient with Covid19. I hope your Nannie died peacefully and pain free 💐

@Grandmi

I totally agree with you. Her general carers, ones she saw on a day to day basis were absolutely incredible. She was not an easy woman to care for as she had frontal lobe dementia and could turn very very nasty. Even to her own daughter. Unfortunately though due to isolation etc the majority of her carers did not have any contact with her within the last week and we were told that agency workers were being drafted it on a daily basis with no continuity (GP told us). It's absolutely heartbreaking, but she knew. Even when we were able to talk to her she kept reassuring us that she wasn't scared of dying and that if it was her time, it was her time. She's at peace now with her little boy. She's happy ❤️

puffinandkoala..i work in a home that is mixed nursing and residential..that is quite usual. The line between what is classified as nursing or residential is sometimes not obvious and other times is. You can have elderly frail whoare not cosidered nursing and others who are considered nursing depending on need who may be quite young ..people can live for a long time with a nursing need. I hope the country as a whole will gain a greater understanding of this sector.

MIL is in a nursing home, and she's just come down with a chest infection so we have our fingers crossed. Normally we visit at the weekends and BIL daily, but we haven't been for nearly 2 months now.

If it looks like things are taking a turn for the worse, I hope she can stay where she is. Even if we can't be there to hold her hand, the staff love her and she loves them, so despite the situation being shit, we know someone who cares would be with her.

The PPE shortage is awful though, it must be terrifying for the carers a) not knowing if you could catch something and take it home to your own family and b) possibly being asymptomatic and taking it into the residents and spreading it.