Wester Ross nursing home manager reveals anguish over 'falsehoods' and hails 'amazing' staff
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THE manager of a Ross-shire care home has spoken out over the impact on residents, staff and relatives of a false accusation which plunged her into the centre of a coronavirus media storm.
Carrie Hersee of Isle View Nursing Home in Aultbea said the assertion by the LibDem shadow health secretary Alex Cole-Hamilton that a resident from a Covid-19 infected area had been admitted and subsequently died from the condition had been devastating.
The Edinburgh MSP subsequently gave a full apology for his blunder.
He tweeted later: "Received this information from a reliable constituent in good faith. I didn’t name the home in Parliament when I asked about it but it was named in the paper – I got this one wrong and I apologise."
The impact of coronavirus on care homes across the country, amongst them Home Farm on Skye where 10 deaths have been linked to the outbreak, has come under intense scrutiny, ramped up pressure on staff and prompted calls for more testing.
Mrs Hersee, who put the 23-bed Isle View on the shore of Loch Ewe on strict lockdown "long before we were told to" and instigated a rigorous regime with her "amazing" staff said: "The mantra became, 'no one gets Covid–19 on my watch'."
Extra resources were put into cleaning, personal protection equipment was issued and all staff were temperature tested three times a day.
She said: "We even carried out our own COBRA-style meetings where we worked out our plan of action, checked and rechecked our infection control measures and spoke to staff about the dangers and the harm it would do if it came inside."
With staff "frightened for themselves, the residents and each other and relatives distressed that they can’t make their normal visits and spend time with their loved ones", anxiety levels were already running high, she said.
She said Mr Cole-Hamilton's assertion, passed to him by a constituent, could easily have been checked: "No one had died at our home from Covid–19, the person didn't exist. I could prove it, I keep long, often tedious records to prove everything, because that is what we have to do, always."
She told of the flurry of calls from distressed relatives"struggling to believe what they were reading".
She said: "Finally after 48 hours, apologies were forthcoming, and I was proved not to be some reckless fool. There are no words to express how much this series of falsehoods and criticism upset my staff, relatives and me, but from everything we always try to draw a positive. This time the positive was knowing how supported we were by the whole community. It's done now. We've moved on. Our new normal will be with us for a long time yet.
"The vital part you can play in helping us to protect our residents is by doing what the government tells you to do. If you are near my staff, wear that face mask, make sure your hands are washed and keep your distance, and stay safe."
Noel Hawkins, whose mother Margaret has been cared for in the home for more than three years, said said the thought of residents and staff being used for political point scoring was "disgusting" and had caused enormous distress.
He has not been able to see his mother, who suffers from dementia, since February. She turned 93 in March. He said: "One of the things that myself and two brothers and other family members have always said is that seeing her in Isle View with the level of care the staff and owners put in is something that helps – normally and especially now. Seeing the story breaking caused us all huge distress as we felt that would have been a death sentence for her to be honest. Thankfully we are close enough to the staff that we were able to speak with them and learn the truth relatively fast but it could have been a lot worse."
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