Coronavirus: Care home boss fears second wave in Wales after 70-hour wait for test results

Care home workers in Wales will be given a weekly COVID-19 test for a month starting from next week but a Welsh care home owner has warned test results are “too slow” and could cost lives.

'Critical time is being lost'

Glyn Williams, the owner of the Gwyddfor Care Home in Anglesey believes “critical time is being lost because test results are still taking too long to turnround”.

Experts say it is vital for test and trace procedures to be completed within 48 hours otherwise it is ineffective but Mr Williams has said it took nearly 70 hours for the test results of one of his care home workers to arrive.

Mr Williams said the test results of one of his staff members at Gwyddfor was negative but said: “If it had been a positive there is no way that it would have been possible to break the chain of infection, it would have been far too late. "To do that you need to trace every contact within 48 hours”.

Anglesey was the only county in North Wales to be selected to trial the Welsh Government’s Test, Trace and Protect strategy. It involves testing people for coronavirus and then tracing the people they have been in contact with to stem the spread of the disease.

Weekly tests for Welsh care homes

The Welsh government has promised weekly home-testing kits will be available to care homes in Wales from next week for four weeks via the Care Home Portal or from health boards.

The Welsh Government stated: “I would like to thank the significant effort undertaken by local health board staff to ensure that we have been able to deliver a significant testing programme.

“We will continue to work with care homes and the sector to ensure that regular testing helps to support our Test, Trace and Protect programme”.

Weekly testing for care home staff is welcomed by care home providers but they believe the test and trace system will not work because many tests results are not being returned within 24 or even 48 hours, leaving no time for tracers to do their job.

The care home boss said: “The scientists tell us it takes 48 hours from when a person becomes symptomatic for that person’s contacts to pass the infection on to somebody else.

“If we can get the test turned around within 24 hours that leaves the contact tracers with another 24 hours to contact everyone who is a potential contact of that person.

“My experience in Wales is that not very many of them are turned around within 24 hours. I referred a member of my staff on Tuesday afternoon at 3.30pm for a test. It finally came through at 11.02am on Friday – that’s nearly 70 hours". Mr Williams said “I’m in touch with colleagues across Wales” and “the average appears to be between three and six days”.

Sanjiv Joshi, director of the Caron Group, which owns 14 homes across South and Mid-Wales, has said there were huge variations in testing returns across the group’s homes from 24 hours to five days and also highlighted other problems with the current system.

“There needs to be proper consultation with care providers before these policies are put into practice because it can be very disruptive for the care system,” Mr Joshi said.

“I’m no expert but I have serious concerns we will have a second peak or another uncontrollable outbreak unless we get the Test, Trace and Protect system running within that golden 48-hour period”, Mr Williams added.

Health minister asked to confirm 24 hour turnaround time

Mr Williams tweeted Welsh Health Minister Vaughan Gething asking for data to confirm tests were being turned around within 24 hours but says he is yet to receive a response.

The Welsh Government’s weekly care home test announcement comes as health minister Vaughan Gething was criticised for not knowing how many care home workers have died of COVID-19.

Mr Gething wrote in a letter to Plaid Cymru: “We are not in a position to provide a full picture of nursing/residential home employees."

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) currently publishes COVID-19 death figures for care workers in England and Wales but the health minister has asked the ONS to consider producing separate figures for care workers in Wales.

Mario Kreft, Chair of Care Forum Wales (CFW), which represents more than 450 social care providers in Wales, believes the Test, Trace and Protect scheme will fail if the results are not available quickly enough.

Mr Kreft said: “We now need to learn the lessons of these past few months to ensure we don’t repeat the same mistakes, particularly if we are going to experience a second wave of Covid-19 later in the year”.

Perfect storm became a ‘category 5 hurricane’

Gwyddfor Care Home is currently full but Mr Williams said the financial situation is still "precarious" and thinks he would only have to lose four residents to be operating at a loss.

Mr Williams said none of the original £40m rescue package from the Welsh Government is available for self-funded residents, only those funded by the local authority.

“What does the Government want us to do? They want providers to pass these extra Covid-19 costs on to self-funders which is absolutely ludicrous.

“Care Forum Wales has been saying for years a perfect storm is brewing, well it just turned into a Category 5 hurricane. A massive investment of money is the only way to put the social care system right.”