Coronavirus: Health Secretary claims care home testing victory while homes await tests

Health Secretary Matt Hancock has announced the government has met its 6 June target to give COVID-19 test kits to all care homes for over-65s or those with dementia, but a poll of 264 care homes reveals 13 per cent were still waiting for tests on 2 June.

The government has said 1,071,103 testing kits have been ‘delivered’ to 8,984 eligible care homes in England, regardless of symptoms.

Health and Social Care Secretary, Matt Hancock said: “We have now managed successfully to offer tests to every care home that is eligible, both for staff testing and for residents to be tested.

“What that means is that for about three quarters of a million people living and working in nearly 9000 eligible care homes, the tests have been delivered.”

13% awaiting tests and homes report 'inconclusive' results

The National Care Forum (NCF) surveyed 352 care homes before the 6 June deadline to ask about testing (during the period between the start of May to 2 June).

Of the 264 eligible care homes surveyed as of 2 June, (caring for people aged 65+ and those with dementia), some 87 per cent had been tested, while 13 per cent were still waiting to receive home testing kits.

The poll also found, some 43 per cent of care homes tested had received void and inconclusive results and 12 per cent were still waiting for test results.

How health secretary’s testing promise changed

Matt Hancock announced the testing target has been met, despite the fact he previously promised that all eligible care home residents and staff would have been tested, not just delivered by 6 June.

On 11 May, the government stated: ‘By 6 June, every care home for the over 65s will have been offered testing for residents and staff’.

On 15 May, Mr Hancock said: “We will test every resident and every member of staff in our elderly care homes in England between now and early June.”

A government source has suggested Mr Hancock "mis-spoke" when he said all residents would be tested, rather than offered a test.

Matt Hancock said on 7 June: "The goal we set is that the tests will be delivered by June 6.

"That was completed yesterday... I’m being extremely precise. I have not said that we have tested everybody. What I’ve said is the tests have been delivered."

Shadow Care Minister Liz Kendall has accused the government of being "too slow to act".

The Labour MP for Leicester West, said: "Last month the Health Secretary promised that by June 6, all residents and staff in care homes for the over 65s would be tested. Today he said that care homes would only have tests ‘delivered’."

Learning disability and other care homes offered testing from 7 June

The government has said testing will now be offered to ‘a wider range of care settings’, including specialist learning disability and mental health care homes from 7 June.

Controversially, many care homes had been left out of the government's 6 June testing target altogether, including many care homes caring for people with learning disabilities and mental health issues.

Mark Topps, care home manager for Little Wakering House spent months trying to get COVID-19 testing kits delivered for his care home which supports people with learning disabilities and autism. He is among the care homes previously refused testing kits because his care home was not eligible.

Only one round of testing guaranteed

To date, the government's care home testing programme has only been able to guarantee one round of testing in each home.

The NCF has said its poll results highlight the need for routine, regular testing across all care settings to help care homes ‘win the battle against COVID-19’.

Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum, said: “It is clear that there is a need to improve the accuracy and timeliness of the results from testing to enable social care providers to respond quickly to manage and prevent COVID-19 infections”.

Most NCF poll respondents reported as much as 10 per cent of staff (who tested positive) and up to 10 per cent of residents (who tested positive), were asymptomatic.

The National Care Forum, which represents 120 UK charities delivering care to more than 135,000 people in 6,500 settings, has said regular testing will ‘establish clearly’ which residents showing symptoms ‘are actually COVID-19 positive and which aren’t’.

Vic Rayner added: “The findings related to the proportion of symptomatic residents who are not testing positive reinforces the need for regular, repeat testing to avoid unnecessary isolation and the impact this has on the mental health and wellbeing of residents.”