GP calls for action after 125 of her care home patients die of COVID-19

“I am really angry about this,” said Dr Anna Down, scanning her computer for figures to show how coronavirus has ravaged her patients living in nursing homes.

“One home had 23 deaths, another lost 19, and another 13,” the Ealing GP said. “In two units 50% of residents died in the space of 10 days.”

Down is the clinical lead at a practice with 1,000 residents on its books in 15 privately run nursing homes in the area of west London hit harder than anywhere in Britain by COVID-19 deaths in the first weeks of the outbreak. In a normal month, she might expect to lose around 28 people. In the last month she has lost 125.

Down has a warning to the rest of the country informed by her practice’s experience: reform how social care handles Covid-19 or face rising deaths and a second devastating wave of infection.

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Source: The Guardian, 22 April 2020