Agenda item

The item on Care homes will be focusing on two issues:

·  How Southwark can work together to protect and treat people in Care Homes with COVID 19,

·  Enabling Care Home residents to stay in touch with friends, family and the outside world.

A briefing has been provided by council social care officers and NHS Southwark on how residents will be protected and treated from Covid 19, and work with homes to enable residents to stay in touch with friends and family.

The item on Care homes will be focusing on two issues:

-  how Southwark can work together to protect and treat people in Care Homes with COVID 19,

-  enabling Care Home residents to stay in touch with friends, family and the outside world.

A briefing and presentation at the meeting  has been requested from council socail care officers and NHS Southwark on how residents will be protected and treated from Covid 19 work with homes to enable residents to stay in touch with friends and family.

The following partners have been invited to contribute to this item, subject to confirmation:

• Care Home providers : Anchor Hanover and HC One
• Lewisham and Southwark Age UK and the Lay Inspectors
• Southwark Carers
• Link Age Southwark
• Entelechy Arts

A scrutiny review on Care Home quality assurance, completed July 2020, is enclosed as background information.

The item on Care homes focused on two issues:

·  How Southwark can work together to protect and treat people in Care Homes with COVID 19,

·  Enabling Care Home residents to stay in touch with friends, family and the outside world.

Genette Law, Southwark Councils’ Director of Commissioning,  presented the briefing on how council social care officers and NHS Southwark are protecting residents from infection  and treating Covid 19, and working with homes to enable residents to stay in touch with friends and family.

Genette Laws, Jin Lim, Acting Director of Public Health and Sam Hepplewhite, Director of Integrated Commissioning NHS Southwark,  took questions.

The following points were made:

·  Visitation to residents to care homes by friends ad family is usually for compassionate reasons -  either for end of life care of where residents are unable to stay in touch using technology.

·  There have been further deaths from Covid  in Care Homes over and above the 60  previously advised in July; however the situation is much more under control with only occasional outbreaks in homes, or  a single resident testing positive. Care Home cases tend to be asymptotic cases picked up by routine testing. Information on Covid mortality and survival rates will be supplied

·  Vaccination of care home residents and staff will be a priority, delivered by the commissioned GP services. There will be ‘max ‘vaccination sites, being prepared in advance,  and local sites.

·  Most care homes have a stable supply of PPE .There is a portal as a backstop - which is working well. The council are also keeping a mutual aid supply as another back up.

RESOLVED

Officers will provide

·  A briefing on the vaccine programme

·  An update on recent Care Home resident  deaths from Covid ,  and total survival numbers.

Christen San Pedro, Area Director for Care Home provider HC One,  provided an update on how Tower Bridge Care Home has dealt with the pandemic.

The Area Manager started by explaining that from day one of the first admission of person who was positive from Guys and St Thomas Trust the Care Home has been provided with excellent daily support via a WhatsApp group from Social Care and NHS colleagues. One unit was impacted by Covid, however this was contained.  Loneliness was a problem. Staff are equipped with tablets to help keep residents in touch with the outside world. Tower Bridge has been very stable recently.

The following points were raised in the subsequent discussion:

·  Family visits to residents with dementia have been important.  

·  Tests are now available if a resident is symptomatic and to screen for asymptomatic cases. The home is able to get medical advice on the best treatments plan, given frailty. Some residents will go to hospital, but the home can also provide fluids and antibiotics in the home.

·  Staff were initially quite scared. The weekly testing of staff (a pilot) was a relief as this provided reassurance that they were not going to bring the virus home to loved ones.  There were some issues with staff cover, however HC One do have a large staff team which Tower Bridge can draw from, including a critical staffing grid . HC One have redeployed people from wellbeing work to on care.

·  Agency staff were not used. The Director of Commissioning advised this is best practice to avoid infection risk. The council staff tracker indicated that additional people are being recruited in supporting roles.

·  The increased workload has impact on staff most; however there is a flexible force and HC One did look after the staff team to allow enough rest.

·  Tower Bridge has an activity programme and a garden to keep people active. There is music, specific one to one sessions,  as well as a small group with social distanced activities. The units are contained to reduce the spread of infection.  There are tablets to communicate with family and friends. It is also about the relationships with staff, which are good. There are a lot of calls going on in the home.

Ross Diamond CEO Lewisham and Southwark Age UK and the lead agency for the Lay Inspectors was invited to input into the theme of keeping in touch with friends and family.  The CEO endorsed the importance of contact; charity can provide support to family members who need help. There is a whole range of activities that the voluntary sector is keen to get going now online. Activities such as cycling trips for care home residents are in pipeline, being delivered by Blackfriars. The Age UK portal ‘my social’ is a resource. He updated the commission on the Lay Inspector service by announcing that the new coordinator will be Andy Loxton, a former employee of Southwark.

Rebecca Swift, Entelechy Arts presented on how they have kept residents in Tower Bridge in touch with the outside world and continued the community arts work going throughout the pandemic .The slide show is attached. The following films were shown:

https://vimeo.com/399232312

https://vimeo.com/458965404

https://vimeo.com/421139476

The Commission  and chair warmly welcomed the presentation and thanked Rebecca Swift and the other speakers for attending.