The boss of a major care home provider has slammed a government system that would force hundreds of workers to make a 250-mile round trip to get tested for coronavirus.
Earlier this week Health Secretary Matt Hancock announced vital tests for anyone in the social care sector who needed one ‘immediately’. But while elderly residents can get tested in their homes they live in, staff must travel to regional testing centres.
It means up to 400 workers at Encore Care Homes’ Oakdale facility in Poole must make the five-hour round-trip to Gatwick in Surrey if they want to be tested for Covid-19.
Rachel Dryden, chief executive of Encore Care Homes which also has facilities in Bournemouth, Christchurch, Southampton, said care workers were made to feel like ‘second class citizens’ compared to NHS staff who are being tested locally by the relevant Trusts.
Maggie Tomlin (centre) Home Manager of the Encore Oakdale care home, with her team at Poole, Dorset
It is estimated the 250-mile journey would take around five hours to complete
She said: ‘There were all these grand promises around social care being valued equally to the NHS.
‘So when I received the email from the Care Quality Commission inviting staff to come for testing which said the nearest centre was Gatwick I could not believe it.
‘Our staff are low earners and many don’t drive, so how are they supposed to get there? Public transport is not allowed and minibuses would be a problem for social distancing.
Rachel Dryden (above) is Encore Care Homes’ chief executive officer. She has said that to ‘expect our carers to make a five hour round trip is absurd’
‘It has not been clarified who will pay for this, but I would not expect our staff to have to pay for 240 miles of petrol.
‘If you were remotely ill, to expect our care workers to make a five hour round trip is absurd.
‘There needs to be locally accessible testing for care workers, like there is for NHS staff.
‘This just makes care workers feel like second class citizens compared to the NHS. This plan is completely unworkable and farcical.
‘There are many more beds in care homes than hospitals and the residents are very vulnerable, so this is a really important issue.
‘We are working incredibly hard to source PPE and keep our care homes safe, but it is only a matter of time (before there is an outbreak).
A long stay car park at Gatwick Airport is being used as a drive-through Covid-19 test centre
Up to 400 workers at the care home must make a five-hour round trip to Gatwick if they want to be tested for Covid-19
‘We need to be able to get staff back to work as soon as possible to care for our residents.’
The Care Quality Commission had sent an email to care homes on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care.
It stated that: ‘The new testing facilities have been established at several locations. Oakdale (Poole) is closest to a testing site at Gatwick.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured) told a select committee on Friday he was ‘absolutely sure’ the number and proportion of deaths was larger than reported
‘These tests seek to provide testing for members of your staff who are in the early days of self-isolating due to symptoms of coronavirus.’
The email added that state regulations say the person must drive to the centre or be driven by a member of the same household. They cannot take public transport or use a taxi.
Minibuses for multiple staff members have also been ruled out as this would violate strict social distancing rules.
It is also unclear if those that can drive to Gatwick will be expected to foot the bill for petrol which could cost £60.
A CQC spokesperson said they were not responsible for managing the centres.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: ‘We have launched the largest network of diagnostic testing facilities in British history to rapidly scale up the number of tests we can carry out each day to get people back to work faster.
‘We are working with industry partners to launch around 50 regional test sites at convenient locations across the country by the end of April – 29 are already open – to allow all health and care staff to be tested as quickly as possible.
‘We are also rapidly developing a home testing kit and working with Amazon and other commercial partners to reduce the need for frontline workers to travel at all.’
While the government has been releasing a daily death toll from within hospitals, more than 7,500 care home residents are now feared to have died from coronavirus, according to new data.
Care England, the country’s largest representative body for care homes, has warned the number of residents dying from the illness far surpassed government estimates.
And Public Health England said there were 3,084 care homes with Covid-19 outbreaks in England, as of April 15.
In a poll of 2,800 care home owners, managers and staff, 28 per cent said they were looking after residents who had tested positive for the disease.
More than 40 per cent said they had seen suspected outbreaks of Covid-19.
On Friday Matt Hancock promised that data on care home residents who die with the illness will be available ‘very shortly’.
Speaking at the Health and Social Care Comittee he said: ‘I asked CQC to make sure that we record the data in care homes specifically, of those who are residents of care homes, whether they die in hospital or in the care home, and they started collecting that data yesterday (Thursday) and it will be published very shortly.’