Care homes spending extra £38.6m a week fighting COVID-19

Care homes are paying out £38.6m a week more than usual on PPE and staff cover to stop COVID-19 claiming the lives of their residents but the huge figure is being described as a “conservative” estimate.

Care home group Palms Row Health Care calculated the UK-wide figure based on its own COVID-19 costs for the first month it tackled the virus.

The group runs three care homes in Sheffield, providing 200 beds, and is spending £80.93 per resident per week more on PPE and staff cover in response to the coronavirus threat.

The care group came up with the care sector’s £38,611,703 sum by multiplying its own £80.93 figure by the number of care homes across the UK, which is estimated (by Knight Franks in 2019) to be 477,100 care beds.

’Three-wave tsunami’

A spokeswoman for the care home group called the million-pound figure “conservative” because it does not include staff incentives like costs to transport staff to and from work and other additional back office costs. If the pandemic lasts a year, this figure is estimated to cost the care sector over £2 billion extra.

Nicola Richards, managing director of Palms Row Health Care, said: “Care homes provide a vital national service and instead of being fully resourced we are facing a three-wave tsunami which could destroy the sector.

“We feel there have been failings of central and local government in relation to COVID-19 and care homes across the country. We should have been afforded the focus, support and protection like the NHS. Sadly, care homes have taken the full force of the impact of this pandemic because of government policy and this could yet get worse.”

Council gives 5% more but 15% needed to stop closures

Palm Row Health Care has warned councils must pass more than the 10 per cent extra weekly fee rate promised by government to help care homes respond to the threat of COVID-19.

Local authorities were awarded £1.6bn on 19 March and a further £1.6bn on 18 April to help them respond to COVID-19 with money going to services such as adult social care services, children's services and fire and rescue. The Secretary of State for Communities wrote to councils on 30 April advising that 10 per cent extra is the uplift required for care homes.

However, Sheffield County Council has increased its weekly fee rate for a bed from £505 to £539 – amounting to only a five per cent increase of £25 extra per week.

The extra costs incurred by Palms Row in the first four weeks it fought the pandemic indicate that anything less than 15 per cent is “totally inadequate”.

The Local Government Association and ADASS recommended councils increase rates by 10 per cent to meet the COVID-19 challenge and Care England recommended this should be 15 per cent.

Local authorities have said they are not being sufficiently funded by government. A Sheffield City Council spokesperson has claimed that there is a £34.5m funding gap between what is needed and what the government has provided.

The care group warns that after June, when councils re-assess the level of beds required, lower occupancy rates due to COVID-19 casualties could see a fall in funding which will force care homes to lay off staff, if beds are not secured by the NHS and councils.

It warns a short term funding boost of up to three months to cover occupancy voids will not secure economic viability mid-long term “causing homes to collapse” and hit the sector before a second wave of COVID-19.

‘Abandoned’

“While care homes are fighting for residents’ lives, we are being abandoned by the authorities who have for too long seen us as a Cinderella service” added Nicola Richards, managing director of Palms Row Health Care.

“Councils are telling us they don’t have the funding to pass on the money needed to fight coronavirus. Providers are warning that unless beds are guaranteed in the medium-term we may see care homes close or have to lay off the staff that have shown such dedicated service during this national crisis.

“All in all, the blame must lay at the government’s door. They have delayed their green paper on social care on countless occasions since 2017 and are still not recommending local authorities pass on the amount needed to cover the crisis.

"It’s come down to this; providers need uplifts of at least 15 per cent or they will close”.

click here for more details or to contact Palms Row Health Care Ltd