Ignored. Neglected. And forgotten about. Britain has about 410,000 elderly residents across 11,300 care homes now invisible in the government’s mishandling of coronavirus.
Lack of adequate PPE for carers. Unaccounted COVID-19 elderly deaths excluded from the NHS daily death tolls. And bare minimum testing kits being delivered to them even as latest figures from five European countries including the UK note that care home residents have accounted for between 42% and 57% of all deaths related to COVID-19. This is the grim misery under which the old suffering from mental illnesses self-isolate themselves from families and other social interactive activities.
“We look after 1400 elderly people in our 20 care homes across the UK. 70% of our patients have dementia so it is difficult to explain to them why they cannot meet their family members and have to remain isolated within their wards.
“We believe that there are people in six of our care homes who are potentially suffering from coronavirus. It is very frustrating that the hospitals and government have refused to test our patients. We have had ZERO patients tested despite flagging up that dozens at our care homes have already died perhaps of COVID-19 or other underlying health conditions- we do not know the cause as we are not equipped to make such a medical assessment,” said an owner of a Hertfordshire based care home who requested to remain anonymous in a statement to Asian Voice.
On April 14th as Asian Voice went to press, two of the largest providers of care homes in the UK revealed the deaths of 521 residents from coronavirus in the last few weeks. In the meantime, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has started gathering care home figures from death certificates where doctors report that a fatality was confirmed or suspected of having occurred because of the virus.
Points-based system to save our elderly
Now, sources suggest that the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) is coming out with a points-based scheme where infected people aged 65 or over will be given points based on their age, frailty and underlying health conditions such as heart conditions, asthma, kidney malfunction among others. According to these guidelines still under consideration, someone over 71 years old, will automatically receive 4 points and any patient having over 8 points will not be given access to a ventilator or critical care. The scheme comes at a time when an overburdened NHS is struggling to save lives of young Britons being infected with the virus. But health professionals have been issued with a “clinical frailty scale” to identify “who may not benefit from critical care interventions”, the NHS has confirmed.
“Do you allow a healthy 70-year-old person to have 20 good years of life ahead if they have contracted the virus? Or do you consider saving a 50-year-old person with an existing health condition who has coronavirus only because he happens to be younger than the former?” asked the source.
However, in a recent letter to The Times, Professor Mayur Lakhani, President of the Royal College of General Practitioners presented a different outlook to this situation. He wrote,
“Instead of offering futile invasive treatments, providing palliative care to keep the patient comfortable and allowing them to die a naturally dignified death in their home is the best thing to do. Admission to hospitals for severely frail patients with incurable diseases is usually unhelpful and may even be harmful and is not what most people want.”
Some care homes have been fore-sighted in stocking up adequate PPE ensuring that care home staff are following proper disinfection guidelines and sanitisation so as to minimise the impact of coronavirus.
“At TLC Care we have worked together to minimise the impact of Covid-19 on our residents, team members, and relatives. We have worked really hard to source an appropriate supply of PPE and have ensured that our team members, residents and relatives are educated on all the steps we are taking and that they need to take to stay safe and well in line with both government and Public Health England guidance,” said Paavan Popat of TLC Care.
