Coronavirus news stories

Coronavirus

Health minister diagnosed with coronavirus

Health minister Nadine Dorries has been diagnosed with coronavirus. Dorries, MP for Mid Bedfordshire, first showed symptoms on 5 March – the same day she attended an event hosted by the prime minister at Downing Street. Dorries is now self-isolating at home.

Ten people with the virus have died in the UK, which has reported a total of 800 cases. More than 26,260 people have been tested for the virus in the UK. The government announced last-minute measures in its first Budget in response to the effect the outbreak is likely to have on the UK economy.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak has said the NHS will get “whatever resources it needs” during the crisis.

In addition, the Bank of England announced an emergency cut in interest rates from 0.75% to 0.25% in response to the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

Care homes battle virus

A case of coronavirus has been confirmed at Oakridge House Care Home in Basingstoke, Hampshire. The home has since been closed to visitors after the person tested positive for the virus and was taken to hospital for treatment.

Hampshire County Council could not confirm whether the patient was a resident or staff member.

Meanwhile, a member of staff at Heather Holmes in Northamptonshire has tested positive for coronavirus.

The care home, located in Desborough, provides care for up to 12 people and specialises in supporting those with learning disabilities and autism. It is run by Consensus, part of the Caring Homes Group.

A Heather Holmes spokesperson said: “We can confirm that a member of staff has tested positive for covid-19. The health and wellbeing of the people we support, and our members of staff, is our absolute priority. We are working closely with Public Health England and following their instructions.” The announcement follows another case of coronavirus that was confirmed on 12 March at Oakridge House Care Home in Basingstoke, Hampshire. The home has since been closed to visitors after the person tested positive for the virus and was taken to hospital for treatment.

Hampshire County Council could not confirm whether the patient was a resident or staff member.

Ten people with the virus have died in the UK. There are currently 596 confirmed cases in the UK, up from 456 on Wednesday. More than 26,260 people have been tested for the virus in the UK.

BATM develops new diagnostics kit to detect covid-19

BATM, a provider of technologies for medical laboratory systems, has developed a new diagnostics kit to detect covid-19.

The kit, developed by BATM’s biomedical division, has undergone testing by several central laboratories and hospitals that have now verified its ability to diagnose covid-19.

The group has begun production of the kit at its Adaltis facility in Rome and is working with academic and research institutions, mainly in Europe, to prepare for large-scale production. The kit, which supports all the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations, has already received interest from customers in several countries.

Zvi Marom, chief executive officer of BATM, said: “We believe that the strategy we adopted in our biomedical division is proving to be correct, especially in light

of the current covid-19 outbreak. We are now able to quickly provide diagnostic kits for any new pathogen that appears.”

He added: “We have already received extremely positive feedback and significant interest from several leading medical institutions that have started testing the first panel of Ador’s NATlab solution and adding covid-19 will greatly strengthen its appeal and value.”

PLMR launches coronavirus advisory team

PLMR, a communications agency specialising in the health and social care sector, has launched a coronavirus advisory team to advise its clients on reputation management and corporate communications following growing concerns around the outbreak.

London-based PLMR, which represents more than 2,000 healthcare and education facilities, has for several weeks been advising clients who are responding to and managing the emerging outbreak, also known as covid-19. This includes supporting clients to communicate with staff, customers, patients, residents, parents, stakeholders and regulators to provide clear communications that reassure and outline contingency plans that are in place.

Nathan Hollow, head of health and social care at PLMR, who is leading the coronavirus advisory team, said: “Over recent weeks our consultants have been at the forefront of decision-making and communicating around this outbreak, operating at pace and with precision to make sure our clients can proactively engage their stakeholders and ensure business continuity. This is particularly important in the health and social care sector, given the many vulnerable people being supported across the country and the very understandable concern their loved ones may feel at the risk covid-19 poses to the continuity of healthcare services.”

Coronavirus

NHS red tape could stop retired doctors joining covid-19 fight

If the government decides to call up a ‘Dad’s Army’ of retired doctors to help the NHS cope with the covid-19 crisis, the NHS will need to change its recruitment process drastically, according to Kit Latham, a doctor who specialises in hiring and compliance technology.

As the number of people testing positive for covid-19 reaches 800 in the UK, Kit Latham, co-founder and chief executive of London-based healthcare tech firm Credentially, said that the “NHS’s HR processes need to revolutionise in order to automate the process of re-hiring, onboarding and compliance of retired staff returning to the NHS”. Latham said: “The government has said that the recruitment process will include the ‘emergency registration’ for retired doctors – if only it were easy to do this in an efficient manner to meet the challenges faced by the spread of covid-19.”

Latham warned that healthcare HR departments currently follow lengthy and unnecessarily complex hiring procedures, meaning that between 30-60% of applicants simply ‘give-up’ on their applications, and those that do persist can wait up to six months to complete the process. Latham commented: “If the government needs to recruit professionals quickly in times of crisis, it can make this much easier by empowering HR departments to hire as quickly and efficiently as possible. The criminal record checking system, the requirements to see ‘hard copy’ documentation, and unnecessarily insisting on things like wet signatures rather than e-signatures puts an expensive and time-consuming burden on stretched health providers.

“NHS HR systems and processes will make it much harder to take on the rapid intake of new staff if the covid-19 pandemic takes hold in the UK. The government must modernise the requirements and invest in 21st century technology if retired doctors are to come back to work quickly and help with any crisis.”

Time is right to move to delay stage

The time is right to move to the delay stage in response to the coronavirus, according to Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation. Responding to the government’s decision to move from the contain to the delay phase, Dickson said this move is “about giving us more time to prepare, more time to test procedures and do everything we can to prepare for a very large number of patients who will need care and support.”

He added: “The good news is that our understanding of the virus is growing and that should help us predict how it will behave, better protect our staff and improve front line interventions, such as making best use of protective equipment.

“Plenty of challenges remain, especially making sure we have the professional and other staff to tackle the pandemic. Again, the response already from the NHS front line has been terrific – our flexibility as a service has to be a key strength.”

Dickson indicated that as well as supporting the NHS, there needs to be government support for social care services. The NHS Confederation has also written to the Care Quality Commission to advise that it suspends is planned inspections so that providers can focus their energies on containing the further spread of coronavirus and make sure they are prepared to care for the much larger number of patients who will require support in the next period.

Dickson said: “Our members recognise the value of regulation, but given the current and future impact of covid-19 infections on front line services, a temporary suspension of planned inspections would be the right move. Front line staff and managers do not need any distraction as they confront one of the greatest challenges the NHS has faced in its history.”

The CQC wrote to providers in England to advise that it would take a pragmatic approach in light of coronavirus developments. However, the NHS Confederation said it does not feel that this approach “goes far enough and it overlooks the significant preparation that providers have to go through in advance of their planned inspections.”

Care homes ban visitors

Care homes are shutting their doors to care recipient’s friends and family in an effort to stem the spread of coronavirus. Many are also keeping residents indoors to stop the spread.

The government has not yet officially told care providers to stop visitations, however many homes, including Barchester Healthcare, which runs more than 200 UK homes, has asked visitors only to turn up if it is essential.

Barchester Healthcare stated: “We have not taken this decision lightly, and appreciate that this may cause some discomfort, but feel that this is a necessary step to take.” According to The Guardian, three care homes in Swindon, two in Northampton, two in Fife and all 25 homes run by the Balhousie Care Group in the northeast of Scotland have banned visitors. Balhousie, which has 900 residents and more than 1,200 staff, has given residents iPads to maintain contact with relatives and friends. Several care homes in Jersey are asking people to stay away. Downs View care home, Ashbury Lodge and Church View nursing home in Swindon, managed by Coate Water Care, closed to visitors on Wednesday. Statistics show the over 65s are significantly more vulnerable to the coronavirus, hence why care homes are increasingly considering closure, or at least limiting visits.

In the first big analysis of more than 44,000 cases from China, the death rate was ten times higher in those aged 80 and over, compared to the 30 to 50 age group.