Calls for similar strategy across UK as care home deaths thought to have doubled in five days

NHS staff are being deployed into care homes in Northern Ireland to try and slow rising death tolls, in a move care bosses want urgently repeated across the UK as the Department for Health and Social Care said it believes the official death toll in care homes in England has doubled in just five days.

The Department of Health in Belfast said significant numbers of staff who usually work for NHS trusts or through agencies were working in care homes across the province, where almost 300 Covid-19 cases have been confirmed by the Public Health Agency.

The National Care Forum, which represents charitable care homes, said the same tactic is needed in England, where many homes are being swamped by coronavirus cases while dealing with 10% to 20% staff absence rates due to sickness or self-isolation.

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a new continuous cough - this means you've started coughing repeatedly NHS advice is that anyone with symptoms should stay at home for at least 7 days.

If you live with other people, they should stay at home for at least 14 days, to avoid spreading the infection outside the home. After 14 days, anyone you live with who does not have symptoms can return to their normal routine. But, if anyone in your home gets symptoms, they should stay at home for 7 days from the day their symptoms start. Even if it means they're at home for longer than 14 days. If you live with someone who is 70 or over, has a long-term condition, is pregnant or has a weakened immune system, try to find somewhere else for them to stay for 14 days. If you have to stay at home together, try to keep away from each other as much as possible. After 7 days, if you no longer have a high temperature you can return to your normal routine. If you still have a high temperature, stay at home until your temperature returns to normal. If you still have a cough after 7 days, but your temperature is normal, you do not need to continue staying at home. A cough can last for several weeks after the infection has gone.

Staying at home means you should: not go to work, school or public areas

not use public transport or taxis

not have visitors, such as friends and family, in your home

not go out to buy food or collect medicine – order them by phone or online, or ask someone else to drop them off at your home You can use your garden, if you have one. You can also leave the house to exercise – but stay at least 2 metres away from other people. If you have symptoms of coronavirus, use the NHS 111 coronavirus service to find out what to do. Source: NHS England on 23 March 2020

On Wednesday, the Department for Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it believed the official death toll in care homes in England had doubled in just five days, rising to about 2,100 fatalities by 15 April since the epidemic began. Care home chains have said that up to 70% of their units have reported infections.

On Tuesday, the Office for National Statistics had said there were 1,043 deaths in care up to 10 April. Until then, the official toll was 217. It meant the official estimate of how many people were being killed by Covid-19 in care homes increased tenfold in 24 hours.

The social care minister, Helen Whately, said on Wednesday she was “really, really worried about deaths in care homes”.

“We are seeing a levelling-off in hospitals [but] we’re not seeing that in care homes,” she said.

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In a joint statement, the DHSC and the Care Quality Commission pointed to concerns that more people were dying in care from non-Covid-19 causes than would normally be the case.

They said: “CQC’s preliminary analysis also indicates there may be a significant rise in non-Covid-19 deaths. This is of particular concern and we will be exploring the factors that may be driving this with local authorities, adult social care trade associations, PHE, NHSE – to ensure timely action is taken to safeguard people.

A social care strategy unveiled last week by the health secretary, Matt Hancock, indicated that NHS nurses could eventually be sent into homes, but it has not happened yet in England apart from a small number of nurses who have returned from retirement deployed to social care.

It pledged new guidance about redeploying staff between social care providers and health services to tackle staff shortages and said that nurses and student nurses were being deployed by regional health hubs “irrespective of setting or organisational boundaries”. It promised: “Nurses will be deployed to support social care.”

“We need to get nursing staff into these care environments,” said Vic Rayner, the executive director of the National Care Forum. “[Care homes] might normally deal with one or two people at a time needing end-of-life care, so anything on top of that will require additional support.”

Dr Anna Down, a GP in Ealing, west London, who looks after residents of 15 nursing homes, more than 100 of whom have died from suspected or confirmed Covid-19 in the past month, said “an army of staff” was needed to effectively isolate infected residents and halt virus transmission.

“I have had nurses say to me this is like running a critical care unit with only one oxygen saturation probe,” she said. “They need support. It is manpower-intensive to look after sick patients.”

A spokesperson for the department of health in Northern Ireland said: “Trust employed or bank staff have been working on the rotas in care homes for the last two to three weeks. This is happening in all trust areas, with significant number of trust staff in at least one care home. We expect the number of staff working in this way to grow.”