Care home deaths exceed those in hospitals

I expect we'll be hearing some truly harrowing stories in the coming months from what's gone in care homes. PPE is an issue in care homes, but staffing levels is probably another big factor i.e. not enough staff to care for one resident to minimise the risk of spreading the infection.

My uncle has just tested positive for COVID-19, he has vascular dementia and likes to wonder. It's going to be difficult for them to keep him isolated. He's got a Do not resuscitate order, he almost died from a bad bout of the flu the other year. My Aunt decided it would be kinder to let him go in the event of serious ill health, rather than let him suffer.

Hope he's okay and sees this through.



Just another target now painted on their back, although this one is potentially more damaging to miss than the initial testing one.

Naturally it's in my own interest that this all happens anyway, but my confidence in their ability is more shot than ever.
 
Thanks for the continuing updates Steve. I did see the Faisal tweet earlier.

Scandalous is the only word to describe it.
 
To think VE day was only a couple of weeks ago, these figures are a national disgrace :(
 
Just highlights how the crisis in hospitals has been largely transferred to care homes.

1590136728756.png

 
Just highlights how the crisis in hospitals has been largely transferred to care homes.

View attachment 1303820

Those data points indicate that our care home deaths exceed our hospital deaths, which would place the UK toward the more upsetting end of the spectrum compared with other countries that report on this metric.
 
My mum was in a care home but was transferred to hospital with covid where she died. She will therefore be recorded in hospital figures, thus a portion of those hospital deaths are really care home deaths, making it even worse.
 
My mum was in a care home but was transferred to hospital with covid where she died. She will therefore be recorded in hospital figures, thus a portion of those hospital deaths are really care home deaths, making it even worse.

I'm very sorry to read that.

Your post is a stark reminder that behind all of the statistics lie people with grieving families.

There's nothing I can say that can make that any better. I hope you're all looking after each other. Stay well and reach out for support where you can.
 
Pretty damning stuff.


But considering the crap they put my dad through when my mum passed away I'm not the least bit surprised.


The whole testing policy for patients going to care homes was a bit naff in the early days.

Care home managers would request patient's who'd been in hospital to have a swab done prior to them returning (to protect staff and residents of the care homes they were returning to). However as per Government, Trust and PHE policies; this wasn't possible until far later on in the pandemic.

The shortage of tests in the 'early' parts of this pandemic led to some decisions which in hindsight look very strange.

Its a sad that some simple mis-steps occured and its far worse that documentation was altered in this way!
 
There's a good piece here about what Florida did; relevant given the number of oldies there:


Mary Mayhew had daily calls with the hospitals, with people involved in discharge planning on the line. “Every day on these calls,” she says, “I would hear the same comments and questions around, we need to get these individuals returned back to the nursing home. We drew a hard line early on. I said repeatedly to the hospital, to the CEOs, to the discharge planners, to the chief medical officers, ‘I understand that for 20 years it’s been ingrained, especially through Medicare reimbursement policy, to get individuals in and out. That is not our focus today. I’m not going to send anyone back to a nursing home who has the slightest risk of being positive.’”

“What we said constantly is let’s not have two cases become 20 or five become 50,” she continues. “If you don’t manage this individual as you return them back, you will have far more being transferred back to the hospital.” Early on, when tests had a slow turnaround, there was a lot of pressure to give way, but Mayhew was unmovable on the question.

At the other end of the equation at the nursing homes, the state made it clear, according to Mayhew, “if you are unable to adhere to these infection-control standards, if you are unable to safely isolate and dedicate staff to an isolation wing or unit, you need to transfer that individual to a hospital.”
 
Thanks Steve for keeping providing this info.

I've been looking to see if there are any stats for how many care homes have been tested thus far, but it doesn't seem like there's any records.

I say this as my old man's still haven't received their tests, and I'm not seeing what should be increased numbers reflected in the daily testing figures.

If all care home residents were meant to be tested by June, plus we're increasing our capacity upto 200K, I don't understand why our testing figures are still so low.
 
@richp007


A Department for Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “We have the capacity to deliver up to 30,000 tests a day for whole care home testing and are currently prioritising care homes and areas with greatest need.

“We are testing all care workers and residents, whether they have symptoms or not, and as of 20 May, nearly 125,000 workers in care settings and over 118,000 care home residents have been tested through DHSC and PHE testing routes. We have now launched the online portal to make booking tests for staff and residents even easier."

I've quoted the end of the article as that gives a guide as to the rate of testing being done, in case the paywall blocks it for you. The testing is being done, though running (well?) behind target.
 
@richp007




I've quoted the end of the article as that gives a guide as to the rate of testing being done, in case the paywall blocks it for you. The testing is being done, though running (well?) behind target.

Thanks maddy.

To be honest I'm not surprised. Disappointed obviously, but not surprised.
 
Stone the fudgeing crows.

Found out earlier that the old man finally got a test this morning. Along with the other residents.

Only took em 30 days. After they knew it was in the home and had already taken a few lives. And some staff were off sick or isolating too.

I hope this kind of delay hasn't been the norm, but I won't hold my breath.

Should get the results in a few days.

Hopefully with the increased capacity and the necessity for control in care homes, testing will now be much easier to access.

Again, I'm not holding my breath.
 
Another abject failure with regard to messaging. I'm sure yourself or others have posted the links about people not visiting hospital when they should have done. Having heart attacks and not even bothering to go.

Clearly people were scared and this wasn't addressed adequately enough either.
 
The care home I park opposite when I go and get my bloods done at hospital (every three months) featured on the national news last night.


Literally a five minute walk to the hospital from it. No wonder they asked me to get my bloods done at my local GP instead :(
 

The latest video from AVForums

Is 4K Blu-ray Worth It?
Subscribe to our YouTube channel
Back
Top Bottom