Covid pandemic in care home 'soul shattering'

A care home manager described surviving the Covid-19 pandemic as "soul shattering".

Vicki Walker from Balmoral House in Scunthorpe recalled staff working 24 hour shifts and sleeping at the home adding: "It was a case of saying goodbye to your family and I'll be back when I get back."

Her comments came after the Covid inquiry published a highly critical report on the way the government tried to protect people in care settings in the UK.

Baroness Hallett found the pandemic "totally disrupted" the lives of people in care homes and had a "devastating impact", with more than 43,000 deaths involving Covid between March 2020 and July 2022.

Walker said the period was about "survival".

"Myself and my deputy looked at each other with tears down our faces," she said.

"It was not knowing who was going to become unwell.

"Staff, residents, the news you had to spread to families. It was difficult, very difficult."

The inquiry said government failings, including PPE shortages and major policy decisions, created an environment in care settings where the virus could "spread like wildfire".

Walker said the care home directors tried to source masks and other protective equipment from China and India, "really just getting your hands on whatever you could".

"Supermarkets were brilliant," she said.

"They would send an email, 'we've managed to get a supply of this, would you like it dropping off?'"

The sixth report from the Covid inquiry said the care sector appeared to be "something of an afterthought" in the early stages of the pandemic and there was no "protective ring" put around homes as claimed by ministers at the time.

"I wouldn't say there was a protected ring, not around social care, not at all," Walker said.

"I think we were the underdog to the health sector."

She added: "Looking back at what we faced as a sector, how the sector got through it is beyond me."

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