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Nottingham Post
Nottingham Post
National
Matt Jarram

Care home at crisis point as it struggles to identify who has Covid-19

A care home with five confirmed cases of Covid-19 is still struggling to get any testing kits.

Braywood Gardens in Carlton were forced to isolate all of its 99 residents because they are struggling to identify who has the deadly virus.

Daphney Foster, manager of the care home, said that despite a number of calls for testing, none have been delivered, with Public Health refusing a second visit.

She said staff were working hard to protect the residents in one of the county's biggest care homes and that so far no one had died from Covid-19.

The residents, who range from age 70 to 100, were being forced to isolate in their rooms even if they don't show any symptoms.

Mrs Foster told Nottinghamshire Live: "We are struggling with the testing. They are not testing residents in care homes. There has only been a few tested and this is a 99 bed home.

"We asked the government and they came out to swab a few residents to see if we had an outbreak - and we did.

"We asked them to come back, but because they have already tested us, they won't, so we have ordered tests twice and they have not been delivered.

"We just want everyone tested so we know where we are.

"It is a big home and we want them to know if they are positive or negative. Without tests it is very difficult."

She said Public Health only tested eight patients during their visit about two weeks ago, with five testing positive for Covid-19.

"We are self-isolating all of our residents because we don't know who is positive or negative.

"The company have been really supportive and the staff have been amazing. I can't praise them enough.

"Our staff do have PPE. It is just the testing (that we need).

"None of our residents have shown symptoms but we are treating everyone as if they have Covid-19 to be on the safe side.

"As soon as we got our first positive we isolated everyone in their rooms. We feel we have taken the independence away from a lot of our residents."

No-one from the Department of Health and Social Care was available to address the concerns posed by Nottinghamshire Live.

The department did release a statement yesterday, which read: "The government is working around the clock to make sure the adult social care sector in England is getting the support they need to tackle the pandemic on the frontline and continue to deliver quality care to our most vulnerable.

"We have launched a comprehensive action plan and provided £3.2bn to local authorities to help them deal with the impacts of the pandemic on public services, including adult social care."

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