Why are care homes being so badly hit?

[ssd]

I know the elderly are very vulnerable and PPE is inadequate, but is there any other reasons? How is covid happening in all these care homes?

Yes, carers too, being hung out to dry.

Lots of vulnerable people under one roof. The same as hostels and prisons but most of society are less concerned about those populations so its less frequently reported. Plus less frequently reported for prisons due to government mandated suppression of information for understandable security reasons.

@user200000000 the majority of care homes are private businesses and nothing to do with the government.

It doesn't matter if they are old and infirm. They do not deserve to have their lives cut short because this government fucked up.

As said highly susceptible people all gathered together in close proximity, for the virus this is 'shooting fish in a barrel' I don't think it was ever really feasible to stop covid to getting into places like this

It was policy to discharge elderly patients without testing into care homes. What did they think was going to happen, bool?

I don’t think they are “being left to die” - the staff in my mums Nursing Home are doing a brilliant job in incredibly difficult circumstances.

I feel angry that the staff haven’t been well protected with the right levels of PPE, but as others have said, those in Care/Nursing Homes are the most vulnerable and many have (like my mum) DNRs in place, so the death rates will look bad.

As people say, older, frail people need to be exposed to a much lower viral dose than the general population to become symptomatic.

Pneumonia is the highest or one of the highest causes of death in older people - it's inevitable that CV19 will provide fatal to many.

It's is impossible to provide personal care while socially distancing.

Care homes are run on very tight staff ratios. Carers will inevitably be providing care for many people during the course of one shift.

There are huge staff shortages in many care homes, even more so with staff having to self-isolate or becoming ill themselves. This means that there will be different people coming into the home each day/week.

Many care homes are now huge - more people entering a space obviously increases the chances of the virus entering.

Inadequate PPE and not enough of it.

And hospitals were instructed to move older people from hospitals to care homes to 'free up beds, either without testing for CV19 or with no regard for whether they were infected or not.

So one contagious person entering a care home could cause many more deaths than for example one contagious person entering a shop.

It is impossible to provide personal care whilst socially distancing
It seems to me that this is the essence of it; the measures required to prevent transmission are completely incompatible with what needs to be done in a care home.

I can't see how this could have been avoided, have any other countries been able to avoid it?

On another thread I've been told it is because carers should have used commonsense. So there we have it folks, that's all it takes a bit of commonsense and pandemic sorted.

Oh to live in the dreamland that some inhabit.

On a more realistic note many of the homes that take LA residents are paid very low amounts, in my area prospective tenants are put up for bids, lowest bidder wins. Means high standards aren't easy if possible at all. Care needs proper funding.

All patients who are symptomatic are tested in hospitals whether they are from a care home or not same as staff. Patients being discharged shouldn’t have been showing symptoms. The government has never been keen on testing people who don’t show symptoms, ( not just care home residents) I think this is because asymptotic people don’t often show up positive even if they are so it was seen as a waste of resources. I don’t think it was a deliberate policy to spread covid in care homes.

'Common sense' would tell them that the situation is completely untenable😳

I also work in a nursing home.
As PP have said--discharging from hospital to care home without testing, staff being infected and not getting the sufficient time off in order to become well and less infectious, lack of staff testing, lack of resident testing, use of agency staff (but this is not in all situations), poor staff rostering, poor guidance on PPE, lack of infection control/proper use of PPE training, not enough PPE.
Once it is in the home, that's it. It's a concentrated area where social distancing is impossible and it spreads very quickly even with PPE use.

All patients who are symptomatic are tested in hospitals whether they are from a care home or not same as staff.

A lot have fallen through the cracks. My nursing home was 'pressured' (so they said) to admit a person from hospital who'd been on a respiratory ward for pneumonia. Not tested for covid. She came in, next day spiked a temperature, and died a few days later. This was mid-March.
Early April, we sent a resident to hospital because they fell over. This person had a chest x-ray whilst there. A & E doctor said it looked like pneumonia but couldn't rule out covid. Guess what?! No covid test done.

I just don't understand why people weren't tested in these scenarios.

I don't think it's any surprise care homes are so badly hit. Sad though it is many old people die of pneumonia and chest infections and so on. People can't live forever.

Because they are very susceptible to serious illness. Every year flu would do the same thing if there wasn't a vaccine. Many have multiple serious underlying health problems. The quantity of staff needed to run a home means that there's lots of people going in and out

Most of these are privatly run.
All staff should have already had ppe training as an apron and gloves should already be used for personal care.The same with care if patients with infections.
Some homes are great with owners getting in extra ppe at the beginning and training(filed for cqc nspections,,)properly upto date.
Some care homes less good and so more infection for staff and patients and more pressure from managers as staff went off sick.
What we don't get on MN is children of parents in care homes complaining.They know how frail their relatives are,that most are well cared for and have more humanity that those who think taking these patients into hospital to die us in anyway a good idea.
Patient are all tested for covid on admission to hospital ,this does not mean they are positive after they have had enough care for them to be fit enough for discharge.
I had to ask artwork about this one as our website says that X Moog patients whotested positive have been discharge which does sound as if they send them out as soon as the test is done rather than treat them for whatever brought them into hospital then send them home/to care homes.

Staff often work in more than one setting and do not have adequate PPE. There are also many carers who work in people's homes and the people they care are also at risk.

There are so many issues with social care in this county. In the election Boris Johnson said he had a ready made plan for social care but he never put it into action. I hope his plan wasn't just to let them all die.

Why is it this governments responsibility to provide PPE to care homes - the vast majority of which are privately run businesses? It is the responsibility of the care home owners.

Meanwhile millions is being spent propping up businesses while essentisl workers get fuck all.

Why is it this governments responsibility to provide PPE to care homes - the vast majority of which are privately run businesses? It is the responsibility of the care home owners.

A few reasons. Because it is a massive public health issue, which is the responsibility of local and central govt. Nursing homes do provide their own PPE but govt have been sending in more (when they can and not always) and govt have taken over much of the supply and distribution of PPE. A lot of care homes can no longer source their own PPE.

I worked in a private nursing home run by a large organisation. They didnt even have one thermometer and no large gloves. The infection control training was non existent and this was 2 years before cv.

Lack of ppe, lack of ability to isolate elderly dementia patients, increased Co morbidities....

I imagine a lot of the cases can be traced back to when hospitals were told to prepare for an tsunami and so discharged everyone they could.

Even in the elderly a large number are asymptomatic carriers, this has been known since the diamond princess when they tested everybody not just the symptomatic.

People are put in care homes at the end of their life because they are too frail to care for themselves. Because of the excellent care they receive they live longer than expected. The next virus that comes along will sadly cause their demise. In this case Covid19.
It is a sad fact of life and no one’s fault.