Janet Finch-Saunders AM – the Shadow Minister for Social Care – has today (April 16) reiterated her call for people being transferred or returning to residential care home to be tested for COVID-19 (Coronavirus). Mrs Finch-Saunders said:
“We Welsh Conservatives are pressing the Welsh Labour administration to guarantee that everybody going from hospital into social care will be tested for Coronavirus and isolated while the result comes through.
“We must do this to protect to protect those most in need, both those returning from hospital and those, as is likely, who in the days and weeks to come will be.
“And so today, I am calling on the Minister for Health and Social Care to guarantee that care homes will not have to take patients without a test result being obtained. “This is critical to protect both the residents and the staff.
“Residents of or those going to care home are among the most vulnerable in people in Wales, and elsewhere in the UK, and so really should follow the guidance suggested by Matt Hancock MP, the UK Health Secretary, to carry out this testing.
“We don’t know the prevalence in care homes and the proportion of residents affected, nor the issue of staff working in close quarters to people who are potentially highly infectious.
“It’s absolutely vital that we determine the true risk to residents and staff of our care homes. The Welsh Government has to act now to do all it can to prevent turning a crisis into a disaster.
“It’s the only way to protect those most at risk, and those most in need.”
ENDS
