An Edinburgh home care provider says a lack of PPE and testing is putting his staff and vulnerable clients at risk and denying social care the chance to break the chain of infection of covid-19.

Around 50 clients are supported in their homes by Everycare Edinburgh – many are elderly but some are younger clients living with multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease.

Speaking to healthandcare.scot, Everycare Edinburgh managing director Martin Walker says a lack of PPE and testing for staff is leaving clients and carers at increased risk during the pandemic.

He explains staff absences related to the virus have so far been manageable, but he remains concerned about the situation that he says could change overnight.

“All of a sudden we could have six of seven staff off all the one-time and that would present a major problem to us as it would to any provider,” Mr Walker says.

“We are confident that we will be able to ride this out one way or another to make sure people get the care that they require but we are bracing ourselves to have a difficult time at some point over the next couple of weeks.

“Touch wood, so far we haven’t had any of our clients show symptoms but that is a worry and that’s where PPE comes in.”

Referring to recent statements from the Scottish Government providing assurances that personal protective equipment stocks in the country are adequate, Mr Walker says he hasn’t been able to access the PPE he feels his staff needs:

“We do not have supplies of what is a key part of the PPE arsenal. We have been unable to get supplies of facemasks.

“This started back when the UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock stood up and announced that PPE would be supplied to all care providers.

“Immediately after that we tried to ascertain whether that was a UK wide policy and therein began our problems in dealing with the Scottish Government.

“The day after Matt Hancock’s announcement we contacted our local MP to find out if they knew anything about the arrangements. And they didn’t actually know what PPE was.

“After failing to get any information from there we called the Scottish Government and again, alarmingly, we were asked by the representative we spoke to what PPE was. They then provided us with what was a generic government email address and despite assurances someone would respond we are still waiting for a response.”

The government has established a PPE social care triage hotline where care providers can request supplies if they have a suspected or confirmed case of covid-19.

“That is a reactive service,” says Mr Walker, “and in our opinion it’s not good enough.

“If one of our carers goes into a client and discovers that client is exhibiting symptoms then we are to phone the helpline and apparently somebody will make sure that we receive a supply of the correct PPE.

“[Government] has since talked of the correct PPE being delivered to local cluster hubs. We have been trying for the last week or so to find out where these distribution hubs are but we’ve drawn a blank.

“We said we will go pick it up ourselves if you just tell us where it is because we are so desperate to have a supply of adequate protective kit and we think we need to be forearmed.

“We think our carers need to have that so that in the eventuality that they come across someone with symptoms, they are able to protect themselves immediately. That in my view is critical.

“And not only protect themselves but carers, by the nature of the job, don’t see one client a day; they may see ten clients. So they go from one to the other and if they encounter someone with covid-19 symptoms in one house and are expected to go on to someone else’s house they put them at risk as well.

“By and large clients are on their own in their houses and they don’t go out, so the transmission route is by someone bringing the virus in to their home.

“It’s not a fair situation to the carers and their clients – they both need to be protected.

“They are saying that NHS and social care staff with queries or concerns about PPE can send an email to the covid-19 email address and someone will get back to them, but we have found that’s not true.

“I’m sure there are adequate stocks but I have contacts who could help distribute it.

“I have people who are aware of my situation who have said they have vans that are idle at the minute and they could help with distribution – I have said that to the Scottish government and I still haven’t had a response from anyone.

“We emailed the address that staff are encouraged to use – covid-19-health-ppe@gov.scot – but we received a generic response saying it could take up to 60 working days for them to get back to us!”

As part of a network of Everycare providers operating across the UK, Mr Walker says his counterparts in England tell him they received a minimum of 300 facemasks automatically without having to report a suspected or confirmed virus case.

“All I want to know is where the distribution centres are,” he says, “and I will go and pick it up so that my staff and my clients are protected.”

Mr Walker emphasises the “huge preventative role” social care can play by keeping people safe and well in their own homes.  

“At the end of the day our team members are very much on the frontline and we are out there seeing people first. We are potentially preventing them ending up within the remit of the NHS and by trying to keep the client safe at home then that is removing some of the burden from the health service.

“I’ve been very touched by the offers of support that we’ve had and my staff are really pulling together. They’re working their butts off to make sure that people are receiving the care that they require.

“As an employer, but also as a nation, we have a duty to keep these people safe – I mean the care team here too – we really need to be supporting them in the job that they are doing.

“One thing I have been talking about is the importance of testing the workforce. It’s critical that people know whether they have the virus or, equally, whether they might have had it because, if they have had it already, they could be safe to get back to work.”

Self-isolation is advised if someone has the symptoms of covid-19, but without testing Mr Walker says, some workers are absent with symptoms that could simply be hayfever or another respiratory illness.

“If we were able to test them and then we could establish that they are safe to work. It’s also important to test workers who could be carrying the virus without showing any symptoms for quite some time.”

 

 

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