Coronavirus: Study reveals alarming impact of Covid on care home sector

Nursing homes were put under “constant” pressure to accept patients with coronavirus while being regularly refused treatment from hospitals and GPs for residents who became ill at the height of the Covid crisis, a landmark study has found.

The Queen’s Nursing Institute said homes were told hospitals had blanket “no admissions” policies during April and May while GPs and local managers imposed unlawful do not resuscitate orders on residents.

The findings have emerged in a survey by the QNI, the world’s oldest nursing charity, which surveyed 163 care home nurses and managers working across the country.

Carried out between May and June this year, the study establishes an evidence base of the impact on the sector from coronavirus, in addition to the official figures showing care home death rates.

One nurse said they were under “constant pressure to admit people who were Covid positive” while another said: “The acute sector pushed us to take untested admissions. The two weeks of daily deaths during an outbreak were possibly the two worst weeks of my 35-year nursing career.”

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Source: The Independent, 22 August 2020