Barchester Healthcare’s Peter Calveley said around half of its homes have been hit by cases of the life-threatening illness
Coronavirus may have struck three quarters of Britain’s care homes, industry bosses say amid growing fury over Government’s handling of the crisis.
The chief executive of one major UK provider today warned the spread of the killer infection in homes is ‘far more widespread than acknowledged’.
Barchester Healthcare’s Peter Calveley revealed around half of its homes have been hit by confirmed or suspected cases of the life-threatening illness.
But he admitted the rate is closer to 75 per cent for some providers – other industry figures have raised similar concerns that two-thirds of homes have been struck.
Despite the startling claims directly from providers, Health Secretary Matt Hancock today insisted only 15 per cent of homes have been hit by COVID-19.
Mr Hancock’s figure is also staggeringly lower than what ministers have reported in Scotland, where up to 40 per cent of homes are battling outbreaks.
It comes as a leaked letter today revealed care home bosses accused Number 10 of a ‘shambolic’ response to the sector’s coronavirus crisis.
Insiders said they were receiving only ‘paltry’ and ‘haphazard’ deliveries of essential items such as masks, gloves and aprons – mandatory for all healthcare workers.
The letter, leaked to the BBC, warned staff were left confused and having to do extra work because of mixed messaging put out by government officials.
Matt Hancock, pictured today on ITV’s Good Morning Britain programme, claimed there was lower than expected demand for coronavirus tests over the weekend
Mr Calveley today said Barchester, which runs 236 homes across the UK, had 663 residents with confirmed or suspected coronavirus in 118 homes.
He also said his company had recorded 196 deaths – two thirds of whom succumbed to the illness in the homes, and not hospitals.
But Mr Calveley said he was aware of ‘other care providers that are at 75 per cent’, adding: ‘It is far more widespread in care homes than has previously been acknowledged.’
Other care homes – including one of the biggest in Britain – have painted similarly bleak pictures, saying the true number of care homes struck down could be as high as two thirds.
Jeremy Richardson, chief executive of Four Seasons Healthcare Group, which has 191 homes, said it was difficult to give a precise figure due to the lack of testing.
He said: ‘However, we estimate around 60 per cent of our homes have suspected COVID-19 cases.
Mr Richardson added it was ‘consistent with the figures that have been published by colleagues from other firms within the industry’.
He said: ‘We believe the latest Government estimate, that 15 per cent of care homes are reporting COVID-19 symptoms, materially understates the true position.’
The group said around 180 residents with symptoms have died, and between 600 and 700 residents are currently showing symptoms.
The Government has this week faced intense scrutiny over care homes’ involvement in the crisis, with workers saying they feel ‘forgotten’ amid a focus on the NHS.
Elizabeth Diacon, pictured left in pink, met with Kate, Duchess of Cambridge, in May last year to discuss her role in military intelligence at Bletchley Park, Milton Keynes, in World War Two
Authorities are accused of not appreciating the true scale of outbreaks in residential and nursing homes, which are packed with old and sickly people.
Health officials do not record deaths in care homes in the figures that are released each day, unlike countries such as France.
The most recent data for England and Wales – which only goes up to April 3 – shows there has been 217 deaths in total.
Scotland, which is around one week ahead in collecting death data, has recorded 237 fatalities in care homes up until April 12.
It means Britain’s known coronavirus care home death toll is at least 454. However, industry insiders fear the true toll is around 4,000.
It comes as it was revealed a total of 14 residents at two authority-run care homes in Portsmouth have died after showing symptoms of COVID-19.
Portsmouth City Council revealed nine residents of nursing care home Harry Sotnick House and four at Shearwater residential home have died.
The Health Secretary was this morning asked about the validity of claims that up to two thirds of all homes have outbreaks of COVID-19.
He appeared to deny the claims made by care home executives and said: ‘It is 15 per cent have two or more cases.
Speaking on Good Morning Britain today, he described the figure as ‘robust’ and said Number 10 has ‘high confidence’ in it.
Pictured: Health Secretary Matt Hancock with the ‘badge of honour’ for care workers he unveiled yesterday as he faces criticism for the Government’s handling of the crisis
It was vastly different to the claim made yesterday by Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon, who said around 40 per cent of care homes had reported cases.
Britain’s coronavirus crisis was laid further bare today with a leaked letter from care chiefs to the Department of Health.
The Association of Directors of Adult Social Services (Adass) raised concerns about testing, personal protective equipment (PPE) and funding for care workers.
The letter, written on Saturday and leaked to the BBC, warned early deliveries of PPE have been ‘paltry’ with more recent drops ‘haphazard’.
And it shockingly claimed some PPE meant for care workers is being confiscated by border control before being sent to the NHS.
It argued that statements from three Governmental bodies on the shielding scheme for people particularly at risk from the illness have been contradictory.
Though it welcomes the rolling out of testing for care workers, it said that it is being done without thought as to what the sector will do with the results.
And Adass criticised Number 10 for recruiting volunteers, saying it ‘diverted 750,000 volunteers away from supporting local communities’.
It also accused Whitehall of not giving the care sector the same consideration as the NHS.
A Department of Health spokesperson said the government’s plan to support social care was ‘comprehensive’.
They included that it involved ‘ramping up testing, overhauling the way PPE is being delivered to care homes and helping to minimise the spread of the virus’.
The DH spokesperson added: ‘We will continue to work closely with the social care sector to ensure they have everything they need to respond to this outbreak.’
Liz Kendall, Labour’s shadow social care minister, claimed the concerns raised in the letter were ‘extremely worrying’.
It came as it emerged that the NHS in England rowed back on ‘prejudiced’ guidance to avoid taking elderly residents to A&E if it could be helped.
The A&E guidance had been published over the Easter weekend but has since been withdrawn, the HSJ reported.
Homes had been advised to avoid taking residents to A&E if they had problems that could be dealt with elsewhere.
An anonymous boss inside the NHS told the news site the guidance was ‘prejudiced against older people’.
They added that it would have placed ‘obstacles’ between vulnerable elderly people and emergency departments.
NHS England said it regularly updates guidance and this time had changed it within four days.
Older people are widely known to be the most at risk of dying if they catch the killer coronavirus, according to data.
In England 52 per cent of all victims so far have been over 80 and a further 40 per cent were between 60 and 79.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock yesterday announced a U-turn and said families with loved ones dying in care homes will be allowed to visit.
He also vowed to outlaw the blanket use of ‘do not resuscitate’ (DNR) plans, which staff claim they’ve been asked to routinely sign during the crisis.
It comes after shocking reports of elderly victims dying alone in care homes, with families complaining of having to say their last goodbyes over Skype.
Mr Hancock faced ridicule last night as he unveiled a new badge for under-pressure care workers amid fury over the rising death toll of vulnerable patients in homes.
The Health Secretary used the daily press coronavirus press conference to reveal a ‘single brand’ for care workers to allow them to access the same perks as NHS staff.
He said he hoped it would be seen as a ‘badge of honour’, but his comments were criticised amid rising anger over a lack of PPE for staff.
Critics pointed out that the badge had been launched last summer as ‘a unifying symbol of pride and quality in care’, and so was not even new.
It’s criminal: Families’ disgust after 24 residents die of coronavirus in ONE care home and six die and eight are infected out of just 24 in another
A third of the residents at a virus-hit care home have died in just ten days.
In a stark example of the crisis in the sector, six passed away as staff struggled to contain an outbreak.
Last night the daughter of one of the dead said the state care homes had been left in was ‘wicked’.
Rhona White, 64 – whose mother Peggy Grainger, 86, had a moving final letter from her family read to her because they were unable to visit – said: ‘The whole situation is just criminal. People are being allowed to die in these homes and nobody seems to really care about it.’
Ian Charles Leverington (left), 70, a retired engineer, was the first resident to die on April 3 while Gillian Howard (right), 77, who was described by the care home as ‘an extravagant person’ who ‘enjoyed telling stories of her past and her connections with the Royal Family, died on April 8
Some 85 per cent of carers at Philia Care Home in Peterborough have either fallen sick or had to self-isolate after coming into contact with carriers.
The home had 18 residents at the start of the month. Six died in a ten-day period from April 3.
Eight of the remaining 12 are believed to have been infected, although three of these have recovered. Staff try to stay healthy, but many struggle to get hold of personal protective equipment (PPE).
At one point, they even resorted to making home-made visors from plastic file wallets held over their faces with Alice bands.
Bosses yesterday warned inadequate financial support and the dramatic loss of residents was creating a funding crisis that could result in closure – and would be repeated in homes up and down the UK.
Managing director Carol Smit said: ‘We will not be able to sustain this indefinitely.’
Manager Heidi Seldon, who has moved into the home and sleeps in her office, said: ‘What I wasn’t prepared for was how hard it was going to be, emotionally, watching so many of my residents suffering from coronavirus.
‘We’re just trying to hold ourselves together and hope that there will be some light at the end of the tunnel.’
George Smith (left), 88, who was described as ‘a caring man who has spent his whole life caring for his own loved ones’ died last Friday while Peggy Grainger (right), who was described as a ‘gentle, loving person who always put her family first’ died on Monday
Deputy manager Zdenka Dunczikiva has returned to work after falling ill. The 29-year-old, who is staying at the home round-the-clock and has left her five-year-old son with her parents, said: ‘Sadly six people have passed away and it looks like more will go. The next few days are going to be really, really hard.’
The first resident to die, on April 3, was retired engineer Ian Leverington, 70. His only child, Haley Leverington, 38, said: ‘My dad would still be alive today if it wasn’t for the virus.
‘It’s a hidden scandal because the death toll could be twice as bad if they took notice of the care homes.
‘But they’re only looking at NHS hospitals and the general public. Just because they’re elderly doesn’t mean they don’t have a right to be recognised.’
Other victims included Gillian Howard, 77, who died on April 8 and was described by the care home as ‘an extravagant person’ who ‘enjoyed telling stories of her past and her connections with the Royal Family’.
George Smith, who died last Friday aged 88, was ‘a caring man who has spent his whole life caring for his own loved ones’ while Mrs Grainger, who died on Monday, was described as a gentle, loving person who always put her family first’.
The home, which was rated good by the Care Quality Commission last year, is one of six operated by Trust Care Management Group. None of the others has so far been hit by Covid-19.
Some 85 per cent of the carers at the virus-hit care home in Peterborough (pictured) have either fallen sick or are having to self-isolate after coming into contact with carriers
The local care commissioning group (CCG) recently increased its budget by just 4 per cent – less than the shortfall caused by rises in the national living wage, inflation and soaring PPE costs.
A quarter of its annual PPE budget has been spent in just three weeks on goggles, gowns, visors and gloves. Senior staff also claimed the CCG made a verbal agreement to block purchase all the beds for six months but withdrew it because of the virus outbreak.
Mrs Smit last night called on the Government to end the two-tier system under which the NHS pays no VAT on PPE but care homes pay full price. She said an ’emergency measure’ to remove VAT during the crisis should be introduced, adding: ‘At least that would give us some kind of funding relief.’
There are also concerns about who will administer end-of-life medication including pain relief.
GPs stopped visiting the home at the start of the pandemic and community nurses have warned that they may not be able to attend in future due to staffing problems.
Chris Graham, the group’s national operations manager, said: ‘They [staff] have been offered training by Zoom or Skype.
But the home will need to be insured and indemnified. There has to be training and competency.’
Trust Care Management Group is owned by Mrs Smit and her business partner, and run by two families.
It started with two care homes in 2010. Philia Lodge was the fourth. The home normally has a budget of £46 a week for PPE. In the last three weeks it has spent £1,236.
Public Health England delivered 300 face masks to every care facility at the beginning of the crisis, but ‘with no guidance’.
Mr Graham said: ‘We didn’t use it at the time because we didn’t have a positive case. But people [at other homes] were using them because they thought they had been delivered to use [as a preventive measure].’
Peterborough City Council also provided four days’ worth of gloves and aprons after it set up a Covid-19 response team. But there were no goggles or face masks as they were no longer in stock – they had already been sent to NHS hospitals.
Mrs Smit said: ‘The Government should have had a contingency plan.’ No sick residents were turned away from hospital – but the home was usually told to keep them in their care. Those who were ill were assessed by a GP [remotely], or by paramedics or call handlers on the 111 service.
Mr Graham said: ‘We were told they had to stay at the home because they were reaching the end of their life.’