Care homes - The evidence of harms

If you have a weak stomach don’t read this

We’ve written a lot about the systemic failings in government policy regarding care homes (see here, here and here).

However, a recent study on the transitions between hospitals and care homes caught our eye. The sort of study that bypasses the media:  Two care home providers with 20 to 40 care homes each in the South West and the North East of England participated, and 70  participants were interviewed. 

The study exemplifies the impact hospital discharge policies had: “…hospitals just wanted patients out, regardless of COVID status. To be brutally honest, they weren’t interested; they just wanted people out. In those early days, you know, it was very traumatic.”

And how hospitals desperately enacted a policy to clear the decks:    “…we had a phone call from a nurse from the hospital to say that … this lady was lying beside somebody, less than two meters, who was COVID-positive.” 

These instances highlight how thoughtless and reckless the government policies were. Driven by error-strewn …