The struggles Scotland’s care homes have faced during the covid-19 pandemic can in part be attributed to years of undervaluing the sector, according to one nurses’ leader.

Theresa Fyffe, who is head of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland and a former deputy chief nurse, said the virus had exposed “major problems that pre-date the beginning of this crisis”.

They include longstanding issues such as a shortfall of care home nurses which Ms Fyffe says were placed in a box labelled “too hard to do” and overlooked.

Statistics this week revealed just over half of the 3,911 covid-19 deaths in Scotland have happened in residential care facilities.

In recent weeks the NHS has intervened more directly in the running of care homes, with senior politicians suggesting there could be major changes to the sector, which is predominately made up of private providers, once covid-19 abates.

But in a recently-published blog Ms Fyffe said: “The problems care homes have faced during the crisis have, in many respects, been symptoms of how the sector and the people that live and work in it have been undervalued by society for far too long.”

“Another problem the covid-19 emergency has brought to the fore is the recruitment crisis facing the sector. This is another long-term issue that hasn’t received the widespread attention it deserves. The need for registered nurses within care homes has increased.

“Registered nurses have the clinical skills and knowledge to respond to residents’ changing needs, managing medication, monitoring deterioration and overseeing infection control. Their leadership and oversight supports the wider team of carers and care assistants.”

Ms Fyffe concludes: “The imperative to deliver safe, quality care to residents of care homes with increasingly complex health needs is not new. More people are talking about it since covid-19 threatened the fabric of society at all levels and in all environments.

 “It would be a failure of huge proportions if we do not learn the difficult lessons of the pandemic and tackle head on many issues which have, for years, been placed in the ‘too hard to do’ box.”

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