The chief executive of a leading social care charity has called Boris Johnson “clumsy and cowardly” for arguing that many care homes did not follow proper procedures on coronavirus, saying the prime minister was seeking to re-write history.
Mark Adams, chief executive Community Integrated Care, which provides care to a range of people in England and Scotland, said care homes were still having to provide much of their personal protective equipment (PPE), and were only now getting sufficient access to testing.
Johnson prompted anger from the care sector, unions and MPs on Monday when, on a visit to Yorkshire, he said the Covid-19 outbreak had illustrated problems with care homes, where nearly 20,000 people are confirmed to have died from the virus.
“We discovered too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have but we’re learning lessons the whole time,” Johnson said.
A No 10 spokesman said later that Johnson was not blaming care homes, but “pointing out that nobody knew what the correct procedures were because the extent of asymptomatic transmission was not known at the time”.
Asked for his reaction to the PM’s words, Adams told told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: “I probably can’t say on national radio, but let’s just say, unbelievably disappointed.”
He went on: “I think this at best was clumsy and cowardly but to be honest with you, if this is genuinely his view, I think we’re almost entering a Kafka-esque alternative reality where the government set the rules, we follow them, they don’t like the results and they then deny setting the rules and blame the people that were trying to do their best. It is hugely frustrating.”
Asked why he believed the PM’s comments were cowardly, Adams said: “Because you’ve got 1.6 million social care workers who, when most of us are locked away in our bunkers, waiting out Covid, and really trying to protect our family, we’ve got these brave people on minimum wage, often with no sickness cover at all, going into work to protect our parents, our grandparents, our children, putting their own health and potentially lives at risk.
“And then to get perhaps the most senior man in the country turning round and blaming them on what has been an absolute travesty of leadership from the government, I just think it’s appalling.”
Adams said care homes had been let down on protective equipment, and “abandoned” when it came to testing.
“We’ve got a situation where the whole of the social care system has had to source 90% of its PPE since the beginning of the crisis, and that’s still the same,” he said.
“We didn’t test social care until the end of May. So us, like most social care operators, had our losses before we’d even started having any testing at all.
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.
“Yes, the testing has now reached a point where most of our staff in care homes and most of the residents in care homes have been tested once, but once is absolutely useless because if you get tested and then get on the bus back home, and you pick up the virus on the bus, within a week you’re potentially asymptomatic and infectious.
“We have been crying out for weekly or ideally twice-weekly testing for months and we’ve only just got that commitment, It’s is a question of the horse bolting and shutting the stable door.”
However business secretary, Alok Sharma, said Johnson was “certainly not blaming care homes” for social care coronavirus deaths in his comments.
Sharma told Today: “Specifically on the point the prime minister was making yesterday, I think what he was actually pointing out is that nobody knew what the correct procedures were at the time because, quite frankly, we didn’t know what the extent of asymptomatic transmission was. That wasn’t known at the time.
“We then put in place very detailed action plans for care homes, we made sure there was a rigorous testing regime put in place, and we also ensured there was extra money – there was £600m that went in as part of an infection control fund. So we have supported the sector throughout.”