Safety monitoring
staff were exposed to COVID as transferred residents had not been tested. Providers had masks and gloves, but little else. With hindsight, we are, of course, able
to see that COVID infection was on many occasions likely to have been introduced to care homes via hospital transfers. The impact in many homes was a very significant number of deaths in March and April 2020.
Visiting embargoes
As calls to our helpline kept coming, providers followed revised advice to ‘lock down’ care homes and exclude all but staff. Many families became very distressed knowing that their loved ones were desperate to see them and, on account of their dementia, were likely confused as to why no family member visited for months on end. Families were offered video calls, but this often proved difficult to arrange with homes suffering from staffing shortages as a result of staff having to isolate when infected. CCFTV became concerned when many
calls raised the same concern – that when an infrequent video call was arranged, the family noted deterioration in the resident’s
appearance. Many families received calls telling them their loved one had tested positive for COVID, but with no offer being made for them to visit, even with PPE use. On a number of occasions, the next call was to tell them that their loved one had died. That misery was further compounded for many when COVID restrictions meant they could not attend the funeral – and residents were buried/cremated without any family present.
At a time when homes were experiencing serious staff shortages, families could not assist in care; therefore, many residents received a poor service with only the basics available. CCFTV received many calls from staff confirming such and expressing real anguish for the plight of those in their care. CCFTV documented in excess of 1,000
family experiences of distress and concern in those first few months of the pandemic. Family members were incredibly distressed at the lack of communication, at both the speed and severity of the virus, and at the obsession with preventing the NHS being ‘overwhelmed’ – all of which meant that many elderly people were not even close to being adequately protected in those early months.
CCTV continued to implore and lobby ministers to allow one dedicated family member to attend care homes to provide the support and reassurance that residents clearly needed. Those pleas fell on deaf years.
Lockdown easing During this time, CCFTV sought to engage with providers and safeguarding teams on behalf of distressed or grieving families who had little or no experience of how the complaints procedures/safeguarding processes worked. During lockdown most of these meetings were virtual, with no ability to really pore over evidence or review a care home environment. As lockdown eased and some restrictions
were lifted for the general population, care home visits continued to be curtailed. We had the ridiculous situation of family members at bedroom windows simply to see their loved ones, care homes setting up pods in which older people were separated from their family by a glass divider, and so on. It was at this point that many families were seeing older relatives for the first time since the pandemic. Once again, we were overwhelmed with calls for help
September 2022
www.thecarehomeenvironment.com
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