Sun 3 May 2020, 05:07 AM | Posted by editor
LETTER from Harry Hutchinson, EC member, Labour Party Northern Ireland and Tyrone Peoples’ Assembly/Dail.
As the Covid-19 deaths in care homes are added to the total deaths, it puts Britain on track to having the highest death rate from the virus in Europe. Of the 26,000 Covid-19 deaths in deaths in Britain, one third have occurred in care homes. Of the 365 deaths in Northern Ireland, 161 have been in care homes.
Health experts claim this is not the true figure, as not all deaths in homes are properly registered. Many GPs are unable to examine and register deaths properly as they cannot attend care homes to determine the cause of death.
On average, 40% of all coronavirus deaths occur in care, residential and hospice homes. Last week, more people died in care homes than in hospitals. In Ireland 54% of coronavirus deaths occurred in care homes.
The British government previously ignored the warnings of deaths in care homes. By mid April, three of the largest care homes in Britain had reported over 600 coronavirus deaths. Yet these figures were not included in the overall total number of deaths, which were based on hospital deaths only.
Patients sent from hospitals to care homes
One of the tragedies is that patients were often discharged from hospital, having been treated for the virus, and then returned to a care home. One care home in Britain reported a third of its residents becoming infected with Covid-19 after a resident returned from hospital after been treated for the virus.
Care homes staff were denied PPE equipment from the central stockpile, resulting in managers having to drive hundreds of miles to obtain PPE. One care home worker reported that staff were given only gloves and aprons to attend to patients.
Staff and patient testing have only been introduced in the last week and remains inadequate, with 80,000 having been carried out per day, up from 18,000 last week. Care homes in Britain and Northern Ireland total 21,700.
One in four health staff are either sick or in isolation due to the coronavirus. Ten thousand health staff are in hospital being treated for the virus. One hundred have died.
Neglect of care homes and other residential facilities adds to the human tragedy and the legacy of this government’s approach to the pandemic. It was known since January that the elderly would be most vulnerable in this pandemic.
Britain has currently the fourth highest number cases and deaths of the coronavirus in the world, after the US, Spain and Italy. This is a tragic humanitarian disregard of our elderly and the care staff by the UK government.
