Government criticised for being 'disinterested' in home care workers during pandemic

The chief executive of United Kingdom Homecare Association (UKHCA) has criticised the government over the lack of testing and costs of PPE, accusing them of being ‘disinterested in the 715,000’ care workers during the pandemic.

In her open letter to Stuart Miller, director of Adult Social Care Delivery at the Department for Health and Social Care, Dr Jane Townson expresses her concerns with the lack of information to home care providers and how she is ‘frustrated by the focus of politicians on care homes,’ saying the only message for home care providers was to 'follow government guidance on PPE'.

Her letter is in response to the missive from the Department for Health and Social Care warning care providers that the UK is experiencing a rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

She states: 'If the government is serious about minimising the spread of COVID19 among the care workforce and those they support in communities, it needs to fully fund the cost of PPE for care workers and ensure there is availability and accessibility of antigen testing as required for the home care workforce as well as for those in care homes.'

Dr Townson has asked the government for an explanation into lack of testing after reports by officials to meetings UKHCA had attended made it clear ‘inadequate laboratory capacity for testing’ is the reason for a lower prioritisation of testing in homecare.

The government said UK laboratory daily testing capacity was more than 370,000 last week

She added routine testing is not available for home care workers in areas where there are lockdowns and it was ‘unacceptable’ some areas are ‘experiencing a fast and efficient service’ for testing while others are being directed hundreds of miles away and having to 'wait days for results'.

The justification given for not prioritising testing in home care is a small study conducted by Public Health England which indicated that prevalence of COVID-19 in the domiciliary care workforce was similar to that in the wider population.

However, Dr Townson says ‘this ignores the fact that people receiving home care are in higher risk categories for COVID-19’ and 'the government is essentially disinterested in the 715,000 people who work in home care and the 850,000 people per year they support'.

Dr Townson has requested the government explain their plans for increasing laboratory capacity for testing so home care providers can access tests when needed and suggested creating an additional laboratory capacity for testing similar to the Nightingale hospitals which opened at the beginning of the pandemic to create more bed space.

According to the latest government figures published by the Department of Health and Social Care, testing capacity (excluding antibody tests and virus spread testing) is about 245,000 a day.

The government said their UK laboratory daily testing capacity was more than 370,000 as of last week, which includes antibody tests and those tests used by scientists to estimate how widespread the virus is.

Government data shows that both testing capacity and laboratory capacity have increased considerably since the beginning of the pandemic. The aim is to increase capacity to 500,000 a day by the end of October.

’The government needs to fully fund the cost of PPE for care workers’

In addition to better testing, Dr Townson also wants the government to fund fully the additional cost of PPE for care workers during the COVID-19 pandemic as well as to ensure adequate PPE supplies and control of price, as a matter of ‘public health and safety.’

The letter states most providers in the private-pay part of the home care market have received ‘little or no support from the government’ to date apart from the temporary removal of VAT on PPE but that is 'insufficient'.

‘As UKHCA has highlighted to ministers and officials many times, the greatest risk to the correct and consistent use of PPE in home care is not lack of knowledge of the guidelines, it is lack of money to pay for recommended PPE, in an environment of gross underfunding of home care by central government and local authorities.’

Dr Townson added PPE prices remain highly inflated during the pandemic compared with normal times and is underfunded.

‘In the first wave of COVID19, additional government funding assisted home care providers to purchase the correct PPE and remain solvent, for which they are most grateful. Without continuance of suitable emergency funding, there is a substantial risk that many state-funded homecare providers will simply be unable to afford the recommended infection control measures,' she said.

To read the letter in full click here

After this article was published the government announced it will give free PPE to all care home and home care workers and extend the Infection Control Fund until March 2021. To read more click here