Why protecting care homes in Harrogate is as important as NHS and what county council is doing to reduce risks

That is the message from North Yorkshire County Council after announcing they have developed a range of measures to support care homes in the fight against coronavirus.

And part of their strategy will be to challenge the discharge of hospital patients destined for care homes if they believe it to be unsafe.

Speaking at a briefing of the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum yesterday, Richard Webb, North Yorkshire County Council’s corporate director of health and adult services, said: “Protecting care homes is equal to protecting the NHS. We are committed to supporting care homes in a practical way, as well as making additional payments.”

As much as a third of North Yorkshire’s total of 235 care homes and care facilities are located in the Harrogate district.

Mr Webb said North Yorkshire County Council had been aware of the risks with hospital discharges and had taken three steps to help:

Ensuring patients had temporary places out of hospital to convalesce in safely before returning to care homes or their own home;

Creating new safe places within care homes to achieve the same result;

Challenging hospital discharges where it thinks to do so would be unsafe.

Mr Webb said: “We would argue strongly that people need somewhere safe to go until their Covid status is clarified to protect care homes.”

Rising infection rates in the Harrogate district and the county since lockdown was eased have revived fears for the elderly in care homes.

At the peak of the initial outbreak, the virus had crept into a third of Harrogate’s 71 care homes.

By July the coronavirus death toll in Harrogate’s care homes had reached a grim 104, which was 22 more than the 82 coronavirus deaths recorded at that stage in Harrogate District Hospital.

The county council says it prides itself on not waiting for Government guidance before taking action on problems.

In the context of rising infection rates both locally and nationally, it came as little surprise last week when the North Yorkshire Local Resilience Forum (NYLRF), which includes the emergency services, local authorities and the NHS, announced the reinstatement of its “full emergency mode.”

It is already directing local testing facilities towards areas of greatest need and stepped up support to care homes, with some being told to reintroduce visitor restrictions.

National figures on care home deaths

Data analysis shows there were 15,529 deaths in care homes in England and Wales up to the week ending 11 September. Deaths involving Covid-19 in care homes as a proportion of all deaths in care homes increased to 1.3% from 1.1% in the previous week.

CQC data showed there were 14,264 deaths in care homes involving Covid-19 in England between 10 April and 18 September.

Here is what you need to know if you are planning on travelling from Harrogate to Leeds this weekend as the city is placed in local lockdown

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