Highland MSP urges NHS Highland to carry out daily testing of unaffected staff and residents at Skye's Home Farm care home following an outbreak of Covid-19 in order to help prevent further spread of the coronavirus
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NHS Highland has been urged to begin daily testing of all staff and residents who tested negative at the Skye care home hit by a Covid-19 outbreak.
Home Farm Care Home remains at the centre of the island’s outbreak as 57 residents and staff have tested positive for the deadly virus. Five residents have died.
And Highlands and Islands MSP Rhoda Grant has now written to NHS Highland's interim chief executive to carry out mass testing of those who came back negative for the coronavirus when testing was carried out on April 29 and 30.
She said: “I know NHS Highland did not delay testing at the home as soon as the first staff member was confirmed with Covid-19. But this testing needs to be carried out on a daily basis at the care home for staff and residents who tested negative.”
Ms Grant has also asked NHS Highland to respond to concerns raised by the devastated family of a resident who died at the facility yesterday after testing positive for the disease. She said they were concerned about the care home’s handling of the pandemic and claimed staff were being moved around between the group's other care homes in other areas, without adhering to self-isolation protocol.
Rhoda has asked Mr Hawkins if the health board know whether staff had been tested before they were moved in and whether any contact tracing of staff had taken place to ensure staff brought in were not coming from other homes where patients had tested positive for the infectious disease.
She has also questioned Mr Hawkins on what steps the health board took to alert Home Farm about risks to residents once the threat of Covid-19 became known, and what steps his health board took to identify care homes where residents might be at particular risk because of low standards of care flagged up in inspection reports.
Home Care Farm was warned about adhering to cleanliness standards just six months ago.
The MSP also wants to know what extra staffing Highland Health Board has deployed to the home since the outbreak.
In addition, she has also written urgently to the Health Secretary Jeane Freeman asking how all separate bits of government advice has been passed on to care homes by the Scottish Government.
In her email Ms Grant said: “I understand the Home Farm Care Home has weak ratings with regard to infection control – was it identified by Health Protection Scotland as one which might need special attention or guidance before the outbreak occurred? If this is the case, what additional action was taken to protect residents?”
She went on: “At Topical Questions on May 5, you told me the guidance was clear… “there should be no transfer of staff from one care home to another because all of this is about breaking the transmission route”. When was this guidance passed on to care homes?"
She also also urged the health minister to look into the care home’s policies with regards to allowing relatives to be with their loved-ones in their final moments.
She wrote: “The grief-stricken family I am supporting phoned me in the hours after their loved-one passed. There appeared to be last-minute confusion which prevented more than one of the relatives to be by his side at the time of his passing.
“This can only lead to further distress. I believe safe ways can be found to let people visit at the same time if they are all wearing full PPE. This must be looked at urgently and can you (Cabinet Secretary for Health) communicate with the care home and ask that they change this ruling? I am also writing to them today to put this question to them?”
HC-One, which owns and operates the Home Farm care home has insisted it is "doing everything" it can "to make sure our residents and colleagues stay safe and well".
In a statement released before Ms Grant's latest comments, a spokesman said: “Caring for our residents and supporting our colleagues is at the heart of what we do as an organisation, and we are doing everything we can to make sure our residents and colleagues stay safe and well throughout these challenging times.
“The situation at Home Farm is deeply upsetting to everyone in our organisation, our frontline colleagues, residents and their families, and the whole community on Skye. All our thoughts and sympathies are with those families that have lost loved ones at this difficult time.
“HC-One recognised the challenges posed by coronavirus very early on. Based on the international news, we started planning for a coronavirus outbreak in the UK in early February. Our Coronavirus Action Group was formed later that month and has met daily ever since. This group, led by our clinical director, has guided our response to the outbreak and has consistently taken action to ensure our homes are as protected as can be. This includes securing all of the PPE we need, with more than 1.5 million items being distributed to our Scottish homes each week, closing our homes to visitors on March 12, before this was the official guidance, and creating and regularly updating a suite of coronavirus specific training modules that all colleagues have completed.
“Nevertheless, we also know this is a virus that is often invisible. Some people can have coronavirus but never become unwell; others may have the virus for several days before the onset of symptoms. Whilst we are learning from the national and international evidence, much is still not known about how it is transmitted, but we do know that older people and those with long term health conditions are disproportionately affected. Sadly, this characterises the people living in our homes.
“It is important to put the situation at Home Farm into context. This is one of the first care homes where everyone has been tested and the true impact of coronavirus is known. This has not been the case in other care homes over the past two months, yet it clearly demonstrates the huge value and importance of comprehensive, widespread testing being accessible to all care homes. This is something we have been calling for since coronavirus first reached the UK, and we are pleased is finally being put into action.
“We will continue to work closely with our local health and care partners on the island to tackle this outbreak, and we are already working with both NHS Highlands and the Care Inspectorate."
They added that they hoped to speak directly to local politicians and island leaders "so that we can explain the actions we have taken over recent days and weeks", adding: "We are confident we have done everything in our control in this situation.
“Moving forward, our absolute focus is on doing everything possible to support the residents and colleagues at Home Farm so they can be kept safe, comfortable, and make a speedy recovery.”
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