An NHS hospital in Bristol discharged hundreds of untested or previously Covid-19 positive patients into care homes, an investigation has revealed.
Southmead Hospital transferred 213 untested patients into care homes in March and April without checking whether or not they were infected.
Another 20 who had tested positive ‘at some point during their stay’ were sent to a care home without being re-tested prior to the move, meaning they could have still been infectious.
The findings, from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request by Bristol Live, give an insight into impact of chaotic guidance at the start of the pandemic.
In March the NHS was keen to free up hospital beds for incoming Covid-19 patients, and the Government said testing was not necessary on discharge.
The decision has been now partly blamed for the huge impact the coronavirus has had on vulnerable people in care homes.
It is unclear how many patients with coronavirus were moved into care homes during the coronavirus crisis due to a lack of testing. The full scale of the problem will likely never be uncovered.
Southmead Hospital transferred hundreds of untested patients into care homes in March and April without checking they did not have the coronavirus
The FOI found Southmead Hospital, ran by The North Bristol NHS trust, discharged 171 untested patients in March.
This dropped to 42 in April, explained by new NHS England guidance that came into effect on April 16 requiring hospitals to test patients being discharged into care homes, and zero in May.
The 20 patients who had tested positive ‘at some point during their stay’ were from March 1 to April 15 – before guidance changed.
Those patients were not given a test before they were discharged, meaning those patients ‘cannot be said to have been positive when discharged’, the trust said.
It added that from April 16, patients who tested positive ‘were supported to remain in hospital for a further 14-day isolation period’ and on discharge provided with seven days of PPE.
However, a further seven patients who had tested positive in the 48 hours before their discharge were transferred to care homes between April 16 and May 31.
This was made in agreement from the care provider ‘that the necessary infection control measures and resources were in place, including the provision of additional PPE’ where the resident was moving to.
Many care homes argued that they had struggled to procure adequate PPE during the pandemic.
In response to the shocking findings, which are among the first to lay bare the scale of the care home scandal, North Bristol MP Darren Jones says the Government has ‘failed’ care homes.
He said: ‘Southmead Hospital and all of our health care providers have done an exceptional job saving lives in the most challenging circumstances.
‘Care homes especially were failed by the Government.’
He criticised the ‘inadequate’ testing after the strategy has been lambasted by key figures for months.
Until April 15, the Government guidance said testing was a requirement only if the patients being discharged had obvious symptoms.
Official guidance said: ‘Negative tests are not required prior to transfers/admissions into the care home.’
Care home managers also complained that they had been ‘pressured’ into taking the patients, and families said their loved ones had been moved out of hospital like ‘sacrificial lambs’.
It has since become clear that patients without symptoms of the virus (asymptomatic) are able to spread the infection to others.
And elderly people are more likely to show atypical signs of the virus without the usual cough and fever, including delirium and diarrhoea.
NHS figures show 25,060 patients were moved from hospitals to care homes between March 17 and April 16.
But there is no national data to show how many of those patients had the coronavirus because testing was not accessible.
During the same period, care homes were crying out for more PPE to be supplied in order to protect both residents and staff from the infection.
There have been accusations the NHS was prioritised over care homes in terms of protecting it from being overwhelmed.
In May, Health Secretary Matt Hancock claimed Government had thrown a ‘protective ring’ around care homes ‘from the start’ – which has rattled chiefs in the care home sector.
They have been further raged by Prime Minister Boris Johnson who appeared to shift blame onto care homes for their death toll surging into the thousands.
The Prime Minister had said during visit to Goole in East Yorkshire on Monday, July 6: ‘We discovered too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have, but we’re learning lessons the whole time.’
Sector bosses called his comments ‘despicable’, ‘cowardly’ and a ‘slap in the face’, and warned the PM he had ‘picked a fight with the wrong people’.
Mr Johnson refused to apologise for his controversial remarks after Labour leader Sir Keir offered him the chance during Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday.
The Labour leader said the premier’s silence ‘rubs salt into the wounds of the very people that he stood at his front door and clapped’.
He added that the PM and Health Secretary Matt Hancock ‘must be the only people left in the country who think they put a protective ring around care homes’.
Care home residents make up almost 30 per cent of the total 55,000 deaths due to confirmed or suspected Covid-19 up until June 26, according to Office for National Statistics (ONS) data.
In Bristol, it rises to 48 per cent of the city’s 249 deaths.
Source: Daily Mail
