* Mario Kreft MBE, Chair of Care Forum Wales.
Catastrophic failings that led to the “grim an
unnecessary” death toll from Covid-19 in care homes have highlighted the need
for urgent reforms, according to a social care leader.
Mario Kreft MBE, the chair of Care Forum Wales,
spoke out in the wake of a damning report from the Senedd’s Health Committee
which concluded care homes had been badly let down during the coronavirus
crisis.
Among the issues flagged up were the bad decision-making
around testing, PPE and discharging people from hospital into care homes
without confirmation they were not infected.
Up until June 26, a
total of 725 of the most vulnerable people had died with suspected or confirmed
Covid-19 after it got inside Welsh care homes.
The report blasted the complete lack of clarity
over testing with uncertainty over who was leading, managing and coordinating
the work.
The dire shortage of PPE had caused huge problems
in the early part of the pandemic and the fact that decisions took “too long”
came at “great cost to the social care sector”.
The committee concluded that a number of care homes
faced closure because of acute funding problems and they said there was a
pressing need for “systemic reform” to recognise the people working in social
care.
According to Mr Kreft, social care was a Cinderella service that had always been pushed to the back of the queue when
it should be “placed on a pedestal” alongside the NHS.
He said: “This report is essentially confirming what
we knew already and what Care Forum Wales has been saying for months that
essentially care homes, their residents and staff inadvertently became
collateral damage in a drive to protect the NHS from being overrrun.
“Back in February Care Forum Wales launched a
campaign to Shield Social Care and Save Lives.
“As part of the campaign, we were calling for an
early lockdown of care homes, a rigorous testing regime, along with an adequate
supply of PPE and proper financial support to safeguard care homes from a double
whammy of soaring costs and falling occupancy levels.
“Unfortunately, Care Forum Wales and our sister
organisations in the other UK nations were not part of the very early decision
making process in formulating a strategy to tackle the pandemic.
“A survey conducted by Care Forum Wales showed that
42 per cent of care homes felt they were being put under pressure
to admit hospital patients who were Covid-19 positive or without being tested.
Where this occurred, it turned safe havens into coronavirus
war zones.
“All these themes are now being flagged up in the
report from the health committee.
“Worryingly, the message we are getting from our
members is that the testing regime is patchy at best and utterly shambolic at
worst.
“Equally patchy and shambolic has been distribution
by local councils of the £40 million of emergency funding announced by the
Welsh Government.
“It was supposed to be the first tranche of funding
to help the sector through the crisis but there is still no sign of the
additional financial support that was promised.
“We now need to look at the recommendations in this
important report learn lessons for the future, particularly in case there is a
second wave of Covid-19.
“We need a national action plan that includes an
immediate policy shift to put social care on a par with the NHS, creating a
national service that is properly funded because it is, as the First Minister
pointed out, the scaffold that supports the NHS.
“The sector is fragile as a result of the market
being managed by local government for the past 25 years.
“The evidence is starkly illustrated in the league
table of care home fees which highlights the unfair post code lottery which
means providers in Cardiff get £12,000 a year more per resident than care homes
in Powys for exactly the same service.
“Five of counties named and shamed in the bottom 10
worst payers are in North Wales.
“A glaring example of the way the sector has been
mismanaged is the toolkit used by North Wales councils to calculate the fees
which means that half the people on the front line are condemned to being paid
the national living wage and no more.
“We need less talk and more action, with radical
reform to ensure fairness and equality.
“I would concur with Sir Sjmon Stevens, head of the
NHS in England, who said that this should be done within a year because this
must be an absolute priority both in Wales and across the UK.
“The Welsh Government have designated social care
as a sector of national strategic importance and a pillar of the foundation
economy which can provide the jobs and income that can help regenerate Wales in
the recession that’s looming.
“The shambolic way in which local government has
been distribute the £40 million in emergency funding for care homes is the
perfect illustration of why we need to take stock and create a new national
plan within 12 months.
“Hopefully, one positive legacy of this pandemic
will be that the value of the social care sector and the wonderful people who
work in it is finally being recognised.
“What we have learned from this global pandemic is
that we cannot continue to treat and manage the social care market as we have
done for the past generation and expect a different outcome.
“We need a system that is fair and equitable
instead of the post code lottery which means we have 29 variations on a theme –
with 22 local authorities and seven health boards – when it comes to setting
fees.
“The misplaced mindset in the UK has been focused
on ensuring the NHS was not overrun without recognising the catastrophic damage
and the high level of deaths in care homes.
“It ultimately created a vicious circle which
actually also caused more damage to the NHS as well.
“We need strategic, radical reform so we can get this
right once and for all.
“There are many deserving causes but there is
nothing more deserving than social care which should be put on a pedestal along
with the NHS because it is the scaffold that supports it.
“This is not a blame game. This is about setting a
plan that will meet the needs of future generations by learning some important
lessons from the mistakes made during the pandemic and the past generation, so
that history does not repeat itself.”
