My Sheffield care home is fighting for our residents’ lives with little support

AT last Wednesday’s daily press briefing in Downing Street, Sky News reporter Nick Martin asked the Health Secretary what his message was for councils who are not passing on the recommended 15 per cent uplift in finances to care homes following emergency government funding to help meet the costs of responding to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Matt Hancock responded by saying: “We’ve funded councils in order to fund the front line and that’s where the money needs to get.”

Mr Martin, who has spent the last few days in care homes, including one of our homes in Sheffield, raised the issues after noting our concerns that Sheffield City Council has not delivered on its responsibility to release the allocated funds to homes across the city as a matter of urgency.

Instead, in an email to care homes, the council has provided a vague assurance that “additional costs” will be met. How can providers manage services with no guidance on what costs will be met?

We have been fighting for our residents’ lives and dealing with outbreaks in our homes for the last four weeks with no financial payment.

As providers, we should have had access to this fund. We should not have had the additional worry of finances through this health crisis.

The care sector was woefully underfunded in Sheffield before Covid-19 hit and this has put further pressure on a sector in crisis. It is unbelievable that at a time like this the council is not delivering the money that has been given to it to support our front-line services.

In stark contrast, Shropshire has given care homes a 10 per cent increase in funding. In Barnsley, the council is offering cash grants during the crisis to care homes and in Hampshire and Warrington a raft of measures to support the care sector have been announced.

We will not reduce our efforts to provide the best possible care for our residents and will continue to call on the council to step up to the plate, and help the fight against this unprecedented public health emergency.

From: G Gregson, Calverley, Leeds.

I AM extremely dismayed at the Government’s handling of the issue of personal protective equipment (PPE) during the Covid-19 outbreak.

The Health and Safety at Work etc Act 1974 requires employers to provide systems of work, a place of work and a working environment that, so far as reasonably practicable, are safe and without risks to the health and safety of the employees.

In addition, the PPE regulations 1992 require employers to ensure suitable PE is provided for employees who may be exposed to a risk to their health or safety at work.

The World Health Organisation guidelines published on March 19 are clear. They state that “healthcare workers providing direct care to Covid-19 patients” should have, as a minimum, a medical mask, gown, gloves and eye protection (goggles or face shield).

This is the minimum PPE that front-line NHS workers should have. Those in higher risk situations, e.g. intensive care, should have more extensive protection.

I hope that our local MP, Stuart Andrew, will be proactive and show solidarity with our front-line healthcare workers.

From: Simon Stewart, St Pauls Road, Bradford.

THERE is potentially a local calamity taking place: young men are not taking seriously “social distancing”. They gather in groups, fist bump, shake hands, do the hug, and I even saw one drape an arm around a friend.

A community bobby that I know confirmed this and said he spends his day trying to break up such groupings, and that they are not getting the message. And they are going to end up bringing it home to their kid brother, sister, parents and auntie.

Someone has got to get through to them that machismo – hypermasculinity – is not going to stop this ripping through multi-generational households, and that they are going to be the ones bringing it home.

“Two metres determines our existence” to quote Dr John Campbell, who gives informed comment on coronavirus daily on YouTube.

Editor’s note: first and foremost - and rarely have I written down these words with more sincerity - I hope this finds you well.

Almost certainly you are here because you value the quality and the integrity of the journalism produced by The Yorkshire Post’s journalists - almost all of which live alongside you in Yorkshire, spending the wages they earn with Yorkshire businesses - who last year took this title to the industry watchdog’s Most Trusted Newspaper in Britain accolade.

And that is why I must make an urgent request of you: as advertising revenue declines, your support becomes evermore crucial to the maintenance of the journalistic standards expected of The Yorkshire Post. If you can, safely, please buy a paper or take up a subscription. We want to continue to make you proud of Yorkshire’s National Newspaper but we are going to need your help.

Postal subscription copies can be ordered by calling 0330 4030066 or by emailing [email protected]. Vouchers, to be exchanged at retail sales outlets - our newsagents need you, too - can be subscribed to by contacting subscriptions on 0330 1235950 or by visiting www.localsubsplus.co.uk where you should select The Yorkshire Post from the list of titles available.