Calls for urgent scrutiny of coronavirus care home strategy

The concerns were raised by Cllr Dennis McDonnell, St Helens Borough Council ward councillor for Billinge and Seneley Green, during the authority’s overview and scrutiny commission meeting this week.

Cllr McDonnell, a health and safety expert, said it was clear the government’s risk assessment of care homes was “totally inadequate” and led to “many avoidable deaths.”

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“The adult health and social care of elderly residents care homes has been a cause of major concern during the pandemic,” Cllr McDonnell said.

“The government stated in March that the elderly residents were not at risk from the COVID virus.

“Yet by April, one third of deaths in care homes were from the virus. In May, the death rate rose to almost 50 per cent.

“It is clear that the government’s risk assessment of care homes was totally inadequate, leading to many avoidable deaths of elderly residents from the virus.

“This matter needs to be brought to scrutiny as soon as is reasonably possible to determine what went wrong, and with a view to improve the resilience of care homes going forward.”

Cllr Dennis McDonnell, St Helens Borough Council ward councillor for Billinge and Seneley Green

According to the latest council data, 220 people have died in local care homes since the start of the outbreak. Of that total, 76 are suspected of being related to coronavirus.

In the week leading up to as of June 26, five deaths occured in the borough’s care homes, with none suspected of being related to coronavirus.

This week’s data also shows there were no symptomatic cases in the borough’s care homes for the second week running.

In addition, three positive cases were reported in the figures.

A council spokesman said the data is accurate at the time of collation and may differ from the figures from other official sources as there may be a delay in official sources of information.

In addition, the testing of residents and staff, as part of whole care home testing, was not until recently part of the official statistics on infections in St Helens.

At the peak of the outbreak in St Helens, 77 positive cases were reported in a single week, with 103 people showing symptoms of the virus.

That week, in the days leading up to May 1, 28 people died, 18 of which were suspected of being linked to coronavirus.

One care home, St Helens Hall and Lodge Care Home, in Thatto Heath, saw 18 residents die from COVID-19 related symptoms during the peak of the outbreak, according to the home’s owner, Sandstone Care Group.

But the picture in recent weeks has been a much improved one.

The last time a death was linked to COVID-19 in local care homes, according to the council’s data, was in the week leading up to June 5.

St Helens Hall and Lodge Care Home, in Thatto Heath saw a devastating impact from coronavirus

On Monday, Rob Huntington, chief executive of St Helens Borough Council, insisted that the approach taken in St Helens was the right one.

He said Rachel Cleal, the council’s deputy strategic director for people’s services, has been working effectively with all care homes during the pandemic.

Mr Huntington said: “There’s been a lot of work with our care homes. It was an ongoing issue in relation to understanding the impact of the virus.

“The whole approach that we did take specifically in adult social care overall I believe was the right approach to take.”

Mr Huntington did acknowledge that nationally, there has been a “crisis” in care homes.

Labour’s Seve Gomez-Aspron disputed this, instead describing it as a “scandal”.

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Cllr Gomez-Aspron said many elderly people have been “thrown under the bus” with the provision they received during the outbreak.

Moving forward, Mr Huntington said the whole vision for adult social care has probably “fundamentally shifted”.

Mr Huntington said: “The pandemic has had a significant impact and it will be addressed going forward.”