bear66
Well-known member
OK. I just thought it was an emotive metaphor. Having looked after old folk in their last years and occasionally volunteering at a home, I have admiration for the lives these folk have led.My point is that care home care and management is a global issue, and the number of deaths in these homes is absolutely tragic. In most countries care homes have been locked down for many weeks. This means that any virus in the home must have been introduced by those with a responsibility of care.
In the area I live, one care home has already had 30 deaths. Another more local to me, has 88 residents and staff infected - only three deaths so far, but I fear that will not last. Almost all the local homes (14 of them) have a least one resident or staff member infected. Across multiple countries there are similar accounts.
The irony is that locally care homes are required to have qualified nurses on staff, and those nurses may have been doing double duty in local hospitals due to the pressure on the health service. In doing so they became unwitting vectors for the disease. As well, staff were permitted to work at multiple homes, so have spread the disease from one home to another.
While everyone involved had the best of intentions the combination of understandable ignorance about this virus and a failure of regulations designed to improve care has conspired to create an environment in which there will inevitably be multiple deaths.
How infection is getting into homes is a question we need to understand to protect the 50% to 60% who haven't got it. Dischargees from hospitals to care homes have not been tested and that has been one source. But presumably carers must be as well.