City care providers and families hit back at PM’s Covid control ‘finger pointing’

Boris Johnson has since come under increasing pressure to apologise after suggesting some care homes on Monday of failing to follow proper coronavirus procedures.

During an interview on Monday, Johnson had commented: “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.”

He has been accused of trying to “shift the blame” of his government’s failings in coordinating the Covid-19 response, prompting outrage from care providers, but ministers have rallied round claiming his comments have been misunderstood.

His assertions have been disputed by chairman of the Cambridgeshire Care Providers Alliance, Graham Green, who warned the Prime Minister was starting to “point fingers” to deflect blame away from his government for mishandlings early on when testing was paused, instead he claims Mr Johnson is now saying it was only failings in implementation of his strategy.

Mr Green said: “You don’t go into care for the money, so it must be because you want to help people. Those working in care homes are even more used to coping with death, but when it happens like this, on this scale, and you are being blamed for it, that is very difficult.”

At Prime Minister’s Questions, Mr Johnson praised the good job done by the care sector, but stopped short of apologising for his earlier comments.

Mr Green said the suggestion that officials did not know as much about the increased significance of asymptomatic spread of the virus meant NHS hospitals must be just as culpable as care homes for deaths, He said this could only have been prevented by more testing. The CCPA had jointly secured labs in Cambridge to turn around tests in as little as 24 hours for its members but care providers were invited to join the national scheme which at times took at least seven days to return results.

Mr Green said: “He (Mr Johnson) didn’t mention the thousands of people that were discharged from hospital without testing as they had not shown symptoms. Mr Johnson’s strategy was to protect the NHS, but this myth suggesting a ring was put round the care home system is laughable.”

He said with recent concerns about the mental health of staff working in the care sector being affected by Covid-19, he suggested the latest comments were harmful.

“We have been doing this for months and people are in need of a break, but now they get this slap down that they are not doing their job properly. This is just ridiculous,” said Mr Green. “I thought we were all in it together and the government was going to do whatever it takes.”

He said care homes are already geared up for infection control procedures and were aware that the elderly were most at risk. He suggested if care homes and vulnerable had been locked down at the start, the government may not have needed to lock down the economy.

Without testing in place, he said care homes had gone through far more PPE as a precaution and prices for supplies had soared. He said some supplies were available through government systems, but you had to demonstrate it was an emergency before applying, otherwise homes would have to foot the cost.

He warned that the harmful comments may discourage some families unfamiliar with the care sector from putting their relatives in a home.

An example of the outstanding work done by Peterborough care homes has been illustrated by Jackie Pringle, whose father, former local GP Dr Leslie Pringle, died in Lavender House care home in Broadway, aged 91, during lockdown where she says the staff were with him to the end as his family were prevented from being present due to Covid restrictions.

Jackie said: “They are amazing - and have still never had a case of Covid.

“They are as near as gods as you can get. We could not see daddy for 14 weeks before he died and the staff kept in touch with us and someone sat with him until the end so he was not distressed.”

She said: “They got some stick for closing early - reducing visitor times to an hour a day and then shutting completely, but I would sacrifice my time with my dad to keep him safe.”

Dr Pringle had been in Lavender House for three years and was suffering from an aneurysm causing him to become confused. He had previously lived with his daughter Susan in Peterborough and Jackie, from Hamerton, would help care for him for 10 years until it became too much.

She said that the family-run company, Peterborough Care, that owns Lavender House, as well as four others, takes a caring, holistic approach, looking after the whole family .

“My dad could be difficult at times,” she said, “but they never raised a voice. There was no pressure on visiting times and if you needed to talk to staff they would listen.”

As a former groom, she has brought along her pony to the home on occasions for the residents and any staff to interact with and go for pony trap rides.

She added: “I will still take my pony up there and sponsor a few events when they can have entertainment and fundraising again. You cannot forget people like that when they put so much effort into helping us in a difficult time.”

Jackie pointed out that the Prime Minister did not lay the blame at all care homes, but could only praise Lavender House.

“It has been very hard for them without visitors coming in to keep spirits up, but they kept letting us know what was happening and you never felt like you had to get off the phone when they are really busy.”

She said they have had bollywood nights, even a Christmas play. They have painting classes, music classes and everyone smiles and hugs and that was why they were rated outstanding by the Care Quality Commission, said Jackie.