Jewish Care boss demands “substantial, sophisticated and regular" testing in care homes - The Jewish Chronicle

Jewish Care chief executive Daniel Carmel-Brown has met MPs online to demand the rolling out of a “substantial, sophisticated and regular” coronavirus testing programme for all residents and staff members in homes after warning that the sector is experiencing a “separate pandemic”.

Speaking on Tuesday evening, Mr Carmel-Brown said he had spent that day with politicians making it “very clear” that drastic improvements were needed in the availability of testing kits for care home providers, adding: “It is not enough just to come in and test one or two people.

“We are caring for the most vulnerable - testing has been too slow to be ramped up.

“We have to be testing every resident, every member of staff and we need to be doing it regularly. Testing for coronavirus is a bit like the MOT that people do on their cars.

“It tells you one thing one day but it doesn't tell you anything about the future. Unless we are doing it regularly I'm afraid it will be meaningless in the long-term.

“We know, of course, we are going to have to live with this in one form or another until there is a vaccine.”

Echoing his criticism last week over the government's failings on Covid-19 testing availability, Mr Carmel-Brown said, during an interview aired by the Jewish Lads' and Girls' Brigade (JLGB) that he has been giving a “factual” rather than a “political” response to the experience his organisation has faced during the current pandemic.

He added: “There are two pandemics in this country. There's a pandemic in the community that spreads around us all and there's a separate pandemic in our care homes.”

He said he was proud that Jewish Care had decided to lock down their homes 10 days before the national lockdown began in March, after acting on the advice of people in with the NHS and other health services involved with the charity.

“Proudly we were very quick to act - we are very fortunate to have people involved with real expertise”, said the Jewish Care chief.

Based on daily conversations with these people, he said, “we took an early decision, which at the time was very controversial, to close all our care homes. We took it to try to control the number of people coming into our care homes with the aim of trying to slow and reduce the spread of something we can't see, we can't smell or can't hear.”

But in a clear criticism of the government's failure to recognise the impact of the Covid-19 inside the nation's care homes, the Jewish Care chief said he joined others in his sector who complained that the official statistics on fatalities were “not counting the actual numbers because sadly many people are dying in care organisations where it is much more difficult to do things like social distance.”

Mr Carmel-Brown added that, “very sadly a number of our residents have died from the virus” which was a tragedy as these were people “living a very full life in our homes.”

He said the loss of life had “been really difficult for the families” who had not been with their loved ones during the last few weeks, but Jewish Care had “made it possible for them to see their loved ones at the very end of their lives.”

The Jewish Care chief exec also revealed the devastating impact of coronavirus to his organisation's 1300 strong work force and its other volunteers - confirming that at one stage 25 per cent of staff were having to self-isolate as a result of suffering from symptoms of the virus.

But in recognition of their vital work Jewish Care had increased staff pay and overtime payments and supported staff with councillors and social workers because of the “traumatic” nature of their jobs.

He said: “Jewish Care recognises that these people are the most important in society right now. If nothing else comes of this global pandemic it will be that there is recognition that organisations like ours and thousands of others are valued much more than they were before.”

Meanwhile Mr Carmel-Brown praised the fantastic generosity of those within the community who had contributed towards the £4million raised on behalf of a joint appeal launched by Jewish Care, Nightingale Hammerson and The Fed in Manchester, in association with the National Association of Jewish Homes (NAJH), to raise funds to help the charities the fight against coronavirus.

He praised the work of Lord Levy, who had led the fund-raising effort with “one or two others”. Mr Carmel-Brown said Jewish Care alone had estimated that they would need an extra £5 million “in addition to what we would normally spend” to help tackle coronavirus “in the first three to four months of the crisis.”

Having spoken to other homes around the country in the Jewish sector, he said the extra funds had meant there were not concerns about paying for extra PPE for staff and residents and neither was there a problem with paying wages.