Need for protective equipment in hospices and care homes 'now critical' warns Sue Ryder boss

Heidi Travis, Chief Executive at Sue Ryder - which was founded in Leeds and runs two hospices in the region, in Keighley and Headingley, Leeds - said the charity was expecting an increase in the need for its hospice services in coming months as Covid-19 takes its toll.

But she said without significant extra equipment, her doctors and nurses will be at risk.

And the situation is mirrored in the sector, following reports of dozens of deaths of residents at care homes across the UK, some of whom had tested positive for Covid-19.

Ms Travis said: “The NHS is asking Sue Ryder to plan to support more patients and yet our medical teams are already providing palliative care for patients with Coronavirus symptoms with only enough personal protective equipment for a matter of days.

“This means that Sue Ryder will soon be unable to protect our doctors and nurses from contracting the virus. We will not put our staff at risk and so this will lead to staff shortages at a time when they are needed more than ever before.”

She said “an immediate solution is needed”, and added: “We are willing participants in the Coronavirus effort. We want to use our skills, expertise and experience to help in the months ahead, but this will simply not be possible if we cannot access the equipment needed to protect our staff.”

It is understood that Leeds City Council has received 10,000 masks from Hangzhou, China, as a twinned city and other local authorities were trying to get orders from China where they can.

And that any PPE provided by the Government has been given directly to the NHS, with some organisations then passing these onto other sectors. But with the health service also short of equipment this is difficult.

In a plea to ministers, the Local Government Association (LGA) has called for adequate and sustainable supplies of PPE to be handed to frontline council and care services.

A one-off emergency drop of PPE is in the process of being delivered to local resilience forums across the country, however according to the LGA, it will not currently be enough to meet demand.

Alex Sobel, Labour MP for Leeds North West said, said: “It is completely unacceptable that we are into the second week of April and vital care services and hospices are not able to protect their staff and patients for lack of provision.

“Care providers and hospices have to go cap in hand to the NHS and our local authorities have to go cap in hand to foreign governments. These are not complicated pieces of equipment to manufacture.

“Our Government is simply not providing the standard of care to our care workers and their patients at this time of crisis.”

Labour has called on the Government to take urgent action.

The party’s Shadow Health Secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said: “It’s heartbreaking to read reports of deaths and outbreaks of Covid-19 in care homes across the country.

“Every family with a loved one with dementia or needing help will be anxious to ensure they are receiving the care they need. And our hardworking care staff deserve protection and security too.

“Increased testing for care home residents and providing full PPE are both actions that should be taken to provide greater protection to those who receive care.

“We hear day after day that care homes aren’t able to access either tests or the PPE they need, putting both staff and care home residents at risk.

“We cannot leave care home residents and staff fearing for their lives.”

The Department of Health and Social Care previously said all care homes had been given 300 masks each and a national supply distribution team could be called for more.

A spokesperson said: “We are working around the clock to give the social care sector the equipment and support they need to tackle this outbreak. We have provided PPE equipment to over 26,000 care homes including home care providers and hospices across the country.

“The full weight of the government is behind this effort and we are working closely with industry and the whole social care sector to make sure staff have the protection they need to continue to deliver care safely.”

Service providers have also demanded the impact of the virus on care homes is officially measured and published.

It comes following reports of dozens of deaths of residents at care homes across the UK, some of whom had tested positive for Covid-19.

Some 15 residents at a care home have died, five of whom had tested positive for Covid-19, Public Health England said.

The deaths at the 69-bed Castletroy Residential Home in Luton were described as “heartbreaking” by the leader of Luton Council.

Nadra Ahmed, chairman of the National Care Association, said: “It’s very, very frightening because we want to keep our staff safe.

“We have got staff, quite rightly, saying ‘we don’t want to do the job if we haven’t got the equipment’ because they’ve got their own family to think of,” she told BBC Breakfast.

Ms Ahmed said: “I think everyone is doing everything they can, I’m not saying they’re not – we are talking to the Government all the time but I think the urgency of dealing with it in a care setting seems to have passed them by.

“They start to really think about the breaks that we need.”

She added the care industry has also been hit by staffing issues, with between 20-25 per cent of workers currently self-isolating or not able to work.

She said: “Staff are doing double shifts, they’re working their socks off to try and keep the people we are looking after safe, that’s our entire focus is to keep people safe in our services.

“We just need a virtual hug – care homes.”

Helen Robinson, who’s 68-year-old mother suffers from Alzheimer’s disease and lives in a care home in Harrogate, praised the “brilliant” work of staff.

She said that due to visitor restrictions at the home, the family was unable to spend her mother’s most recent birthday with her.

“We’ve never missed a mother’s day or birthday with her. We all made the effort. We took some gifts for us and stood in the car park and the staff were brilliant,” she said.

“They brought her to the window of her bedroom and opened it up and she could see down into the car park at us and give us a big wave.

“It was always going to be hard being the first birthday she’d spent in a care home, but we never expected to not be able to give her a kiss and a cuddle and just sit and hold her hand for a little while on her birthday.”

A spokesperson for Care England said: “It has become abundantly clear that care homes are right at the bottom of the priority list and thus we are wasting time having to fight for everything.

“Insufficient PPE and testing for staff, residents and patients discharged from hospital remain the key concerns of care providers.

“There is scant recognition of the increased operating costs in this time of crisis despite the president of Adass advocating the need for more financial support to the sector at his evidence to the Health and Social Care Select Committee last month.

“If they are not supported unfortunately many providers will fold thus leaving our most vulnerable without care at this critical time.”