Sheffield Care homes did not have enough guidance on how to stop spread of Covid-19

Care homes did not have enough guidance from the government on how to stop the spread of Covid-19, say Sheffield health bosses.
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They were quizzed at a Sheffield Council scrutiny meeting after it was revealed two-thirds of the 66 coronavirus deaths in Fir Vale - the highest in the country - were associated with care homes.

Coun Vic Bowden said: “It seems elderly patients were being discharged to care homes in February and March without adequate advice to staff on how to manage or prevent possible cross contamination.

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"Was this lack of information from the NHS, council or government the cause of Covid-19 deaths in care homes, especially in the Fir Vale area?"

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Sara Storey, of Sheffield Council, said they had followed the primary need to protect the NHS.

She said: “We will learn locally as well as nationally about whether we could have done things differently and whether that might have resulted in different outcomes for people.

“What is clear is there was not sufficient consideration of how we could properly support the whole care sector early enough and there was a gap in the national advice.

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“I don't think there was sufficient guidance nationally for providers on how they could properly support people to self isolate and prevent the spread of infection in group settings.

“That's supported by care homes - many do feel there was insufficient guidance for them."

Nicki Doherty, of NHS Sheffield clinical commissioning group, said it had been difficult interpreting national guidance, particularly about personal protective equipment and social distancing within workplaces.

She said: “We are still all struggling with what seems to be a multitude of guidance on a daily basis that slightly updates the advice from the day before.

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“We have an industry going on interpreting the daily guidance and trying to tell people what that means in practice.

“Infection between healthcare workers has been shown to be a high issue in care homes. Supporting a workforce to provide care directly to patients in a way where they distance themselves from each other and wear PPE, which is pretty horrible, for the duration of the day is really challenging.”

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