All care home residents showing symptoms will be tested for coronavirus and all staff will have access to tests, the health secretary has announced, as the government responded to mounting criticism that the sector is struggling to cope with the pandemic.
Matt Hancock said testing for social care workers will be rolled out “nationwide” over the coming days and that all symptomatic residents would be tested as “capacity is built up”.
Around 400,000 older people currently live in UK care homes, and up to two-thirds of facilities are reporting that residents have already contracted the infection.
Modelling by Candesic, the health consultancy, found that nearly a quarter of these could die if coronavirus becomes endemic in care facilities.
Martin Green, the chief executive of Care England, which represents the large care home chains, warned there was an “urgent need” for testing, as well as the collation of statistics about those who die in care homes and the community.
The government has pledged to carry out 100,000 coronavirus tests a day in England by the end of April. On Wednesday, the department for health said the target remained the “ambition”.
Patients discharged from hospital will also now all be tested before they enter a care home and the Care Quality Commission (CQC) will contact all 30,000 care providers to ensure staff “who need a test will now have access to one”, Mr Hancock said.
It comes after Downing Street admitted on Tuesday that just 505 social care workers had so far been tested for coronavirus.
Daily deaths in care homes are not included in Public Health England’s daily update. Although the Office for National Statistics releases the figures for deaths outside hospitals once a week, providers believe it underestimates the correct toll because few care home residents have been tested for the disease.
“I am deeply conscious that people in residential care are among the most vulnerable to coronavirus,” Mr Hancock said. “We are doing everything we can to keep workers, residents and their families safe, and I am determined to ensure that everyone who needs a coronavirus test should be able to have access to one.
“We have already begun testing social care workers and will roll this out nationwide over the coming days. And as we continue to ramp up our testing programme, we will test all current care home residents with coronavirus symptoms and all new care home residents who are discharged from hospital into care.”
