UK care homes staff ‘treated like their lives are of no value,’ head of whistleblowing charity tells RT

The British government needs to listen to social care staffers on the “frontline” and not their higher-ups, the head of a group that reported attempts to hide Covid-19 cases in care homes told RT.

Health Secretary Matt Hancock said earlier this week that “the epidemic in care homes is coming under control.”

The situation on the ground, however, was “very, very different” from what government officials are claiming, former care assistant and founder of the Compassion in Care charity Eileen Chubb told RT. The NGO began receiving complaints from staffers at the homes who “were the first to alert us to the fact that people were being admitted to the homes with Covid.”

[Prime Minister] Boris Johnson needs to take a leaf out of our book, and he needs to start listening to people on the frontline - not what the management or the care industry representatives are saying, but what the actual care staff…are saying.

The charity has collected stories from whistleblowers at 23 care homes, including in London and Greater Manchester, who allege that their bosses were deliberately hiding the fact that residents tested positive for the novel coronavirus from staff and families. Some officials reportedly played down such incidents out of fear that they could “reflect badly” on the homes.

Meanwhile, a National Audit Office report has revealed that around 25,000 patients were discharged into care homes between March 17 and April 15 - and not all of them were tested for Covid-19 at the time.

Chubb said that releasing people into the facilities without being tested is “appalling,” and staff received very little guidance from the government on the issue. “A lot of care homes are operating on a whim and a prayer, or making up what the rules are themselves.”

The social care staff – they're treated [as if] their lives are of no value. That's how they feel, and that is the evidence that is coming across to us. [Like] their lives don't matter at all. And they are put at risk every day.

The charity head stressed that the authorities must learn from the outbreak and change how the social care system works, and “not just pour money into it, but actually fix it.”“That's why we need a full inquiry into what's happened here,” she added.

The UK government has come under heavy criticism for the more than 11,600 deaths “involving Covid-19” in care homes in England since early March, according to official data. Nearly 2,500 “excess deaths” in care homes were recorded in Scotland since March 16.

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