has been further attention today on care
homes in the you came whether the
government is adequately supporting them
was that kids has been looking into this
for us unfortunately more than eleven
thousand people have died in UK care
homes during this pandemic and the
government continues to face questions
about whether its decisions exacerbated
the situation first of all let's hear
from the head of the organization which
represents the industry in England who's
been giving evidence at a parliamentary
committee today despite what has been
said there were cases I think of people
who either didn't have a code with 19
status or were symptomatic who were
discharged into care homes now given
that the care homes are full of people
with underlying health conditions I
think we should have looked at focusing
on where the people at most risk were
rather than thinking about particular
organizations well the former Prime
Minister Gordon Brown has had some
fierce criticism for the government he's
contributed to a new think tank report
on this issue and he's been speaking to
the BBC well I've come to this not
because I want to involve myself from
the political arguments but because I've
seen two friends die I've seen people
who are workers at care homes risking
their lives to save homes and I've seen
the figures which show that half the
deaths in Scotland where we've done this
report
are in care homes and it's tragic that
even today not all care home residents
and not all care home workers have been
tested by the government for its part
says most care homes more than 60
percent it says remain free from covert
19 the health secretary Matt Hancock has
also said the industry is being given
unprecedented support from the start
we've worked hard to protect those in
social care in early March
we put 3.2 billion pounds into Social
Care half through the NHS and half
through local authorities and we've
repeatedly set out and strength and
guidance for infection control and
support once the UK has passed this
first wave of cope in nineteen there
will of course be plenty of lessons to
be learned
yes BBC's Viki young in Westminster this
is of course about what went wrong and
who might be to blame but it is as well
about learning lessons and making sure
it doesn't happen again particularly
with what's happened in care homes now
listening to some of those who work in
the sector you could really hear their
anger and frustration they've said for a
long time that they think that the
health service and the care sector they
do need to be much more integrated now
we've heard that from various
governments for years and years and
years and it simply hasn't happened and
I think this epidemic really has exposed
some of the flaws in the system now
there are three things to bear in mind
here March was the month when the virus
started to spread rapidly in the UK we
heard Matt Hancock refer switches then
and we know that in March the government
abandoned efforts to test track and
trace because of a lack of testing
capacity it also chose to lock down
later than its European neighbors
despite the threat of the virus being
known and as the head of care England
said just now it allowed patients to be
discharged from hospitals to care homes
without a test and all three of those
decisions are believed to have impacted
on the UK's ability to contain the virus
though the government has defended its
actions throughout we had better news
today that the number of new deaths in
care homes has fallen for a second week
in a row in the UK and while the
political route continues here we should
say that this is an issue affecting a
great number of countries the World
Health Organization in fact has called
the impact of COBIT 19 on care homes and
unimaginable human tragedy and estimates
the half of Europe's fatalities have
been in care homes which in part is
directly connected to the fact that the
virus is a far greater threat to people
over the age of 70 but it's not
necessarily that simple British MPs
today heard evidence from Hong Kong
because despite being close to the
source of the outbreak in mainland China
it's had zero deaths in care homes we do
a very good job in either reason so what
do we have any prison Infanta we isolate
that person in hospital for treatment
but at the same time we isolate all the
close contact people into a separate
either reasons and a quarantine center
for 14 days for observation and they did
our test regularly within the 14 thing
thank you make sure they don't have the
virus but questions are already being
asked
whether strategies like this should have
been used in countries which have seen
far higher death tolls in care homes one
of those countries is Canada this
article from the Washington Post
highlights that 81 percent of its 6,000
coronavirus fatalities have been in
long-term care facilities and perhaps
this statistic demonstrates how some
governments misread the threat of the
virus while they understandably focused
on the capacity of their hospitals less
attention perhaps was paid to the
vulnerability of care homes and the
people living in them this is Canada's
Prime Minister last month if you're
angry frustrated scared you're right to
feel this way we can do better we need
to do better because we are failing our
parents our grandparents our elders the
greatest generation who built this
country when SSA from Georgie Smith a
CBC reporter in Vancouver the country
first outbreak and death occurred here
in BC and a care home in North Vancouver
in March but by far the hardest hit
parts of the country are in the East
provinces like Ontario and Quebec last
month requested the assistance of the
Canadian military in an effort to
contain the virus in seniors and
long-term care homes more than 1600
soldiers were deployed and in a sign of
just how difficult it is to contain this
virus a dozen of the soldiers that were
sent and now infected federal guidelines
were put in place to restrict access to
these care homes and staff were
prevented from working between
facilities there are calls for public
inquiry into the management of this
crisis and a general acknowledgement
that Canada's network of long-term care
homes was left exposed by critical staff
shortages a lack of investment and
cramped living conditions well for more
on the care home situation in the UK I'd
strongly recommend this excellent
article by the BBC's health
correspondent nicht wriggle which was
posted today in it NIC notes there are
already calls for a public inquiry into
this part
the story and that inquiry would appear
to be an inevitability at some point in
the future well that comes there