Piers Morgan's defence of care homes

[Vince_2005]

Even a nursing home is not equipped to deal with a killer and highly infectious virus. That requires a proper isolation hospital. Nursing homes can deal with more serious residents but its still not a hospital.

The evidence that hospitals have been pushing infected patients out into the social care sectors homes is becoming overwhelming and is a massive scandal. the NHS seeded the virus into care homes.

There is a story today in the Telegraph from a care home manager who tells of being bullied and threatened with having his funding cut if he didn't take in a patient already diagnosed as C-19 positive.
i
Care homes need to keep diaries and records of conversations because the truth will come out. Commentators are acting surprised at the extent of the problem in care homes but its no surprise

Some hospital consultants having been acting like tyrants. Refusing to take in people dying and in great distress, many stories of homes having admissions returned to them for "palliative care". Even though they were not qualified or able to administer the sort of palliative care required. They had no oxygen or sedation and had to watch residents die horrible deaths because GPs would not come into the homes to administer the drugs that could have eased their passing..

Don't disregard this issue, thinking they were probably doing their best, they weren't and it will be exposed .

[Penny]

Piers Morgan only seems interested in attacking and blaming the cabinet ministers and his interview technique is raw ego.

Much more serious in my opinion are the actions of the various trusts in dumping patients with C-19 back into care homes ill equipped to look after them. Spreading the virus into the homes..

A residential care home is not a medical facility, it is assisted living, the staff are not nurses. They are not hospices but even hospices are not equipped to deal with infectious patients.

Much of this scandal has to be documented because far from containing the virus the hospital trusts have created a perfect storm in the care homes and thousands of deaths have been the result.

He is always like this Vince. I can’t watch him anymore. It’s all about him as you say. I actually don’t think he cares about anything he argues about he just wants to look important.

[Penny]

I haven’t watched this but I would like to make a few points.

Firstly the majority of care homes are privately owned and charge self funders on average about £1000 a week for their care. Nursing homes charge even more. Social services pay approx £5-600 a week for people who qualify for their help and are not in a position to pay for their own care.

Many of these private homes make massive profits but provide very, very basic food, drink, beds etc. they won’t get people in to provide activities or entertainment unless they get it for free. They expect families to provide all toiletries or they provide them and charge excessive amounts.
I know homes where they even expect the staff to pay for their own uniforms and DBS checks.

So they’re ripping residents off and STILL expecting the Govt to provide them with PPE!!!

[Penny]

My Mum’s care home is owned by the council. The only permanent residents they accept are self funders and there are about 12 of them. The rest of the building takes in people for respite and these are funded by social services.

In recent weeks they have taken in people coming out of hospital who are not well enough to go home but who do not have Coronavirus. They arrive by ambulance and a member of staff goes out to the ambulance in PPE and takes their temperature and if it’s too high they won’t accept them. The Managers tell me they are not entirely happy about this and told Head Office but they were told they had to. So I am guessing the NHS must pay for so many beds there.

[Denis_1610]

I admit I do not watch the early morning TV often; usually at that time I am sifting through forums, like this one. In view of comments in this topic I decided to tune into Good Morning Britain and take another look at Piers in action.

I would agree with anyone that says that interviewees should be given plenty of opportunity to say what they wish without being constantly interrupted - otherwise there is no point in their being on the program. My all-time favourite interviewer was Brian Walden; he was certainly expert in eliciting the answers that viewers wanted but had his own effusively polite style in doing so.

But back to Piers Morgan. This morning's programme confirmed some of my former impressions on him.

Whether or not you like his style, he is certainly very knowledgeable on current affairs and clearly researches in depth the subjects he is going to interview about. This is necessary, so that he can appreciate what viewers may want to know and to respond appropriately to points that interviewees may bring up. It is not a job that any fool could do.

Today he interviewed a former Government minister and two journalists. It was, on his own admission, "a robust interview", but it concluded amicably enough and everyone had a chance to have a say. He did cut in on the interviewee a couple of times, but in a sensible manner, to ask the speaker to enlarge on a point he had just made before moving on.

Later he interviewed a man whose stepdaughter was very ill in hospital and this was conducted in a much more sensitive manner. Eventually he got onto the subject of care homes and interviewed two sisters whose mother had died as a result of someone with Covid-19 being admitted from hospital into the home. Again he dealt with this sensitively, as we would wish.

I imagine that if he were to interview the Prime Minister there would be no punches pulled on either side. I agree there have been occasions when he has been overbearing, but Piers has demonstrated that he is well able to adjust his style to the subject and interviewee.

I think we should be thankful to Piers Morgan, at least for his stand on care homes. Let us hope these discussions provoke the Government and others involved into doing the right thing.

[bowlingbun]

The last figure for deaths in care homes I saw was 22,000!!! If that is true, it is absolutely terrible.

[Denis_1610]

It is very worrying for people who, like me, have an elderly relative in a care home. And it must be heartbreaking for the staff that work there.

[bowlingbun]

Today they were interviewing a care home manager who was clearly upset and angry that his home had been infected by someone coming out from hospital infected with the virus. I as horrified to hear that homes are now in danger of closing down because they are now not economically viable as so many have died, when we know just how desperately good care homes are needed. This is storing up another crisis for worn out family carers!!

[Oldham_1901]

Care Home residents have been seriously let down.

Care Home owners of course don't seem to have lifted a finger regarding the sourcing of extra PPE or test facilities for staff or residents. Leaving it all to the NHS and the local manager.

..and then this... On a recent outpatients visit to the hospital a family member recognised a member of staff from our Mum's care home. "Hello, what are you doing here?"..."Oh well I work here on Thursdays and sometimes at the weekend"..was the reply...

So not only are likely untested agency staff shuttling between carehomes as just mentioned in the news, some of them are actually in hospitals as well???

[Londonbound]

I live near a hospital, I see staff finishing work, and walking out the entrance, should they be wearing masks on the way home if they have been exposed to the virus?

I have seen uniforms stuffed in their bags, to take home and wash? Shouldn't they be washing the uniforms at the hospital?

Are the hospitals taking all the precautions to make sure the virus doesn't spread?