Why did hospital not test my elderly relative for virus? – Yorkshire Post Letters

THE recent experience of my family leads me to believe that lessons from the first wave of the coronavirus pandemic may not have been fully assimilated.

My sister-in-law, 83, was admitted to Bradford Royal Infirmary with a fractured hip and wrist after a fall at home.

A week after her operation to deal with this problem, she was transferred to St Luke’s Hospital for rehabilitation. I rang after she had been there for a week and was told she was being discharged on November 23. I asked if she would be Covid-tested before going home to be cared for by my 87-year-old brother. I was told this was not necessary. As a retired doctor, I questioned this.

She was sent home by taxi on the aforementioned date, arriving home at 2pm and settled to sleep in an armchair by my brother and their only son.

She needed the toilet but my brother was unable to manage to get her up so called an ambulance. She was re-admitted and a Covid test was found to be positive. My brother and their only son are now isolating several miles from one another. On contacting St Luke’s, I was told that it was policy not to test people going home whatever their circumstance for continued care.

Surely this policy means that people going home from hospital are at the real risk of taking coronavirus back into the community? Have the public health services learned nothing?

From: Bob Watson, Baildon.

JAYNE Dowle (The Yorkshire Post, November 30) says that “the Prime Minister tells us that our tier is not our destiny and we have the means to escape if we wish. If there was a prize for the most inane and meaningless proclamation of the year, this would surely be a contender. Once again, he puts us in charge”.

Sorry Jayne, but what he says is exactly right. Each of us is indeed in charge by way of our actions. Sadly, there are still those selfish and inconsiderate people who are happy to put the majority at risk to satisfy their own enjoyment. Have a go at them Jayne, not at a PM who is doing his best in almost impossible circumstances.

From: Peter Hyde, Driffield.

I CAN see no end to the pandemic until we get an effective vaccine rolled out to all who are willing to be vaccinated. The behaviour of some of the more idiotic students and others, as well as the thousands of protesters that we seem to have spawned, make the tier system almost unworkable.

The lack of enforcement also hinders its effectiveness.

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