A “completely nuts” policy means care homes are only getting coronavirus protective equipment if there is a confirmed or suspected case in the building.

“This is nuts – we have to wait till we’ve actually got the infection in our homes,” one care home boss said. “…if we’ve got an active case the horse has bolted.”

A hotline run by NHS National Services Scotland (NSS) was brought in last week to distribute personal protective equipment (PPE) such as masks, aprons and gloves to the social care sector because of widespread shortages.

But the new system has been inundated with calls, healthandcare.scot understands, and care home managers have expressed anger that vulnerable residents are being left exposed to the potentially deadly virus.

Derek Barron is Director of Care of Erskine, which supports nearly 1,000 residents across four care homes and a veterans village.

He told healthandcare.scot the problem is a “lack of understanding of care in an integrated world” on the part of NHS National Services Scotland (NSS), which runs the triage hotline. 

“The fact that they’ve got this prioritisation of you have to have an actual case is actually completely nuts because once we’ve got an active case the horse has bolted.

“We’ve then infected some staff, who will have to go off and will possibly infect other residents who are then going to be ill.

“I couldn’t imagine them ever saying to an NHS ward we need to wait until you’ve got some infectious disease before we will do anything to support you,” he added.

“Well the bottom line is, if you work through the logic, of course we would need [PPE] because every day we are facing people who have got the infection or potentially got the infection, and we’ve got to protect our staff otherwise the whole system collapses.”

Mr Barron also voiced concerns that a shortage of PPE in care homes could lead to older people who have covid-19 being stuck in hospital unnecessarily.

“We are expected to take people from hospital who have suspected covid, during their seven-day isolation without the protective equipment in place to safely do that.

“That’s just crazy, why on earth would I as a care home take someone in if I don’t have the equipment to protect my staff?

“So again, the system’s going to slow down or crash because I’m not willing to put my staff at risk and why should I?”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “Scotland’s social care support workers – like our healthcare workers – are vital in our response to the covid-19 outbreak.

“Ensuring social care support staff have access to the supplies they need to provide care and support to people safely is absolutely paramount.

“A triage centre for immediate and essential requests for additional Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), run by NHS NSS, is now operational, and is taking calls from providers across the country.

“This is currently in place to supplement local arrangements for procurements. We are working to roll out these arrangements more broadly to adapt to changing circumstances.”

 

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