Care Quality Commission responds to concerns about inspectors who have not been Covid tested going into care homes and nursing homes

Letter to Lord Alton of Liverpool from the Care Quality commission about inspectors going into care homes and nursing homes:

I am aware that you have recently tabled a PQ(s) on the testing of CQC inspection colleagues. Please find the below release from Ian Trenholm, Chief Executive CQC.

Ian Trenholm, Chief Executive at the Care Quality Commission (CQC), said “We are delighted to be able to offer the additional assurance to care providers that our inspectors will be getting weekly testing for Covid-19, following the Department for Health and Social Care’s decision to offer testing to key workers. Testing will be rolled out to all inspectors who participate in onsite visits in the coming weeks.

This is in addition to our existing protections, where all CQC staff engaging in inspection and registration visits must undertake a risk assessment prior to the visit. They must use the PPE identified, have gone through training on its use, and have completed the Infection Prevention and Control training. Where an inspector displays symptoms or a positive Covid-19 diagnosis, they are already required to self-isolate.”

Many thanks and if you have any queries, please let me know.

Matthew Hughes

Senior Parliamentary and Stakeholder Engagement Adviser

EPS (Engagement, Policy and Strategy)

Care Quality Commission

Government needs to focus on the vulnerable in care homes – blanket national lockdowns don’t target them. Figures show that COVID-19 outbreaks in care homes in England have increased to nearly 400 a month.

Government says it will respond to Amnesty International’s Report “As if expendable: the UK Government’s failure to protect older people in care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic” – It’s focus should be on greater protection for the vulnerable in care homes not on putting the general population at risk by blanket lock down measures.

Government Minister responds to comments by the UN Human Rights Commissioner about the operation of care homes during the COVID-19 pandemic with their assessment of reports of care home staff (1) abandoning care homes, (2) leaving residents to die alone, (3) failing to make adequate preparations, and (4) failing to provide guidance and personal protection equipment; what assessment they have made, in assessing such reports, of the human rights of patients and staff in care homes; and the assessment they have made of a report by the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services – respond positively, in principle, to a call for a UN convention on the rights of the elderly

Government fails to respond to parliamentary question asking what assessment they made of reports that during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic more than 4,000 people were discharged from hospital into care homes without being tested for the virus.

House of Commons Public Accounts Committee Says It Was “Reckless “ to Discharge Untested Patients Into Care Homes. In One Northern Care Home 27 Residents Died

Care homes ‘thrown to the wolves’, MPs say. Some of the Questions put to the Government as this tragedy unfolded. And in a further indication of diminished accountability to Parliament, Ministers have produced an unprecedented standard reply to avoid having to give detailed responses to parliamentary questions – including questions which have remained unanswered for weeks on end.

Government replies on the disproportionate effects of Covid on people with disabilities; of negligence affecting people on care homes; the recall of faulty face masks; and what plans are in place (1) to acquire, (2) to stock, and (3) to distribute, gowns, masks, eye protection, gloves and other personal protective equipment, which is sufficiently adequate to protect clinical and care workers in the NHS and care sector in preparation for a potential second wave of COVID-19.

Government responds to the statistics published by the Data Analysis Bureau that 15 per cent of 12,407 care home workers from 650 care homes across England, Wales and Scotland have been tested for COVID-19 since the beginning of the pandemic, and that 6 per cent of those tested were tested between 20 and 27 May; and a reply on the effects of Covid19 on people with disabilities following the report by Oxford University on “An Affront to Dignity, Inclusion and Equality”.

Government sticks to its line on care homes and fails to address the remarks of Professor Neil Ferguson of Imperial College that he is “shocked about how badly European – or countries around the world – have protected care home populations” but discloses no plans to modify the Deprivation of Liberty Safeguards to enable relatives of residents in care homes to be able to move relatives to their family homes

The Liverpool -Atlético Madrid Football Match of March 11th raised again in Parliament and by The Liverpool Echo; the loss of jobs because of Covid 19 and the impact on the lowest paid; steps being taken to assess, and to address, the risk of terror groups using the COVID-19 pandemic to recruit new members; and reports that people with COVID-19 have died alone and been left for up to two weeks before being discovered; and Government responds to Jeremy Hunt’s observation that it seems extraordinary that no one appeared to consider the clinical risk to care homes despite widespread knowledge that the virus could be carried asymptomatically.”

The National Care Forum and representations to the Government; and further details of the Infection Control Fund and reply from Minister HELEN WHATELY MP about the management of COVID-19 in care homes and the call for an independent review; what steps they took in response to the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies following its meeting on 10 March.

Government Replies on the discharge of patients with Covid 19 into care homes; the death of the father of Dr.Cathy Gardner; why some residents of care homes are being asked to pay more than £100 a week in extra fees to cover the costs of COVID-19, and some care homes face closure; and the 386 deaths linked to learning disabilities and autism between 10 April and 15 May; and the use of niclosamide as a treatment for COVID-1

Government confirms it has not held discussions with the Equality and Human Rights Commission about whether human rights laws have been breached by hospitals that discharged older patients that were potentially infected with COVID-19 into care homes; claims”there is little evidence to suggest a substantial transmission of infection from care homes into the wider community.” And responds to the deaths of 20 residents at the Paisley Care Home in Liverpool from suspected COVID-19

Government Replies to Question on Estimates of mortality of care home residents linked to the COVID-19 pandemic which found that “data on deaths in care homes directly attributed to COVID- 19 underestimate the impact of the pandemic on care home residents. In the reply, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, National Statistician and Chief Executive of the UK Statistics Authority, says he will analyse how the number of non-COVID-19 deaths occurring in different places of death (including care homes), for different age groups and for different causes of death differ from previous years’ data and will suggest how these findings correspond with possible reasons for the increase.