Covid-19: Care Homes

Baroness Wheeler Excerpts

Wednesday 20th May 2020 Lords Chamber

The Answer was considered in a Virtual Proceeding via video call.

[Baroness Wheeler (Lab)]

My Lords, this Urgent Question taken yesterday in the Commons on coronavirus and care homes covered much of the ground in the Statement taken by us last night. Sadly, it is clear that Ministers’ claims to have thrown a protective ring around care homes ring hollow in the light of the latest ONS figures on deaths in care homes: 9,495 residents in England and 480 in Wales. These figures are still ringing alarm bells, as the number of deaths involving Covid-19 as a percentage of all care home deaths continues to rise this week. As Martin Green of Care England told MPs yesterday, most care home residents should have been prioritised from the start. He also stressed that there are still huge issues with testing, with results lost and staff waiting eight to 10 days to find out whether they have coronavirus.

I ask the Minister about reports on the PHE study on genome tracking to investigate outbreaks in care homes, which last month found that bank and temporary agency care workers, often employed on zero-hours contracts, had unwittingly transmitted Covid-19 between care homes as cases surged and they were moved from home to home to cover staff vacancies. Does this not raise even further doubts and questions about this ring of protection? Why was this issue not recognised early on as a crucial factor in any infection-control strategy?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord Bethell) (Con)]

My Lords, the issue the noble Baroness raises was recognised in the very early stages. The problem of itinerant staff who move from one resident or patient to another was always going to be one of the most difficult to tackle. They perform an absolutely vital role in the care of non-domiciliary patients. That is why we put more money in to pay for more staff, provided PPE for the staff who were working and continue to upgrade the testing arrangements for both staff and patients, to ensure that they are protected.