The National Care Forum (NCF) has called on the UK government to do more to protect care homes from Covid-19 after the former claimed more than 2500 deaths may have occurred in a single week.
NCF executive director Vic Rayner urged the Boris Jonson-led administration to build a “ring of steel” around care homes after a report found the number of deaths may have increased by 193% between 7 and 13 April.
“They need the right PPE equipment, medical monitoring devices, rapid and comprehensive testing, proper funding and intensive research to safeguard the people they care for,” she added.
NCF surveyed 47 of its care provider members, representing 1169 services that collectively support 30,217 people across the UK, or 7.4% of the overall residential care sector population.
By extrapolating the data, NCF analysis suggests 4040 people may have died of Covid-19 within UK residential and nursing services before 13 April.
Factoring in the deaths of individuals who were admitted to hospitals, NCF said 7337 deaths had occurred in communities.
“So long as groups such as residents in care services are omitted from the real-time national reporting on the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the government will surely be unable to properly plan for how to protect its people or exit this crisis,” said Rayner.
“The public also deserves to understand how this virus is impacting their communities, so they can continue to play their part in safeguarding the health of our nation and the most vulnerable amongst us,” she added.
