‘Everyone is crying out for masks right now’ - Fylde coast care bosses call for more PPE help

Care chiefs on the Fylde coast have warned there are not nearly enough face masks to go around and some workers are having to go without.

It comes as an industry association claims virus-hit care homes are struggling to pay “unsustainable” prices for personal protective equipment (PPE) as they try to protect staff and vulnerable residents from Covid-19.

Nadra Ahmed, chairwoman of the National Care Association, said the Government had removed VAT on essential PPE for the NHS but claimed it had not done the same for the social care sector.

Ms Ahmed she understood why supplies had been requisitioned for the NHS.

But, speaking on ITV’s Good Morning Britain, she asked: “What did it do for our sector? Absolutely nothing but drive the prices up.”

And she warned: “If the social care sector fails, if there is provider failure, the problem is going to be much bigger for the government.”

Russell Crossley, a director at Westmorland Homecare in Poulton, said his staff needed the same recognition and support as those in the NHS.

He added: “People working in social care at the moment feel undervalued. NHS workers are receiving a lot of focus at the moment, and rightly so, but there are carers in need of PPE who don’t work in hospitals as well.

“Going between houses caring for clients heightens the risk of transmission of the disease, and it’s mentally draining for our healthcare assistants at the best of times, let alone during this pandemic.

“Everyone is crying out for masks, and we were given 300 by the government. But to put things into perspective, we have over 300 clients to see per week- and those masks would last us around two days if we adhered to current guidelines.”

Mr Crossley said the company has had to assess which patients are at the highest risk of infection and ration out the masks only during those visits and added that there aren’t enough for all staff.

He said some companies were “profiteering” from the pandemic and said the masks currently available to them were “either too expensive or take up to eight weeks for a delivery”.

“There are around 1.56 million healthcare workers in the UK who don’t work in hospitals,” he added. “They need the same help – and the same recognition – and PPE is vital for them all.”

Richard Whyatt, director of Napier Homecare, said: “Every care provider needs PPE equipment. Whatever the ministers say, it is not being provided to those that need it.

“Yes, 400m items may have been distributed but what use is 300 masks when we do around 5,500 visits a week?

“Why is the government selling its stock back into trade channels. We can only source half the orders we had before the current challenge from our suppliers – no wonder we don’t have enough.”

He said calls from the private care industry for more support was not “a wish to profiteer” but “simply a desire to be treated fairly”.

He added: “Our costs are increasing dramatically so why should we not be entitled to recover the costs?”

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, which represents care providers in England, called for universal testing and figures to be collected and released daily to understand the scale of the pandemic.

He said the industry was currently “working a bit blind” without NHS-style daily statistics, but told BBC Breakfast: “There are thousands of people sadly who have now shown symptoms and also sadly as well thousands of people who’ve died.”

Meanwhile, Sir David Behan, non-executive director of HC-One, Britain’s largest care home operator, said Covid-19 is present in 232 of its homes, around two-thirds of all its facilities.