Coronavirus Statement and Action Plan

17 March 2020

Coronavirus Statement and Action Plan – Bristol Care Homes

Our Coronavirus Update 28^th April 2020

To all our residents and their families and friends

Many thanks to everyone involved with Bristol Care Homes, including our residents, relatives, staff, suppliers, and friends for your ongoing support during the Coronavirus crisis.

You will know that we have had confirmed cases of infection at both Field House and Beech House. We have also managed suspected cases at Glebe House and Quarry house, though these have all tested negative. As a result, we have had to make some difficult decisions, particularly by stopping visits to the homes. We are very grateful for everyone’s understanding, support, and compliance with these necessary measures.

We do assure you that we have all the correct measures in place to continue managing the situation to the highest standards possible. We have been able to secure sufficient stocks and a future pipeline of orders of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for our staff. Thanks also to friends in the local community who have provided some PPE such as face shields and shoe covers.

We can now confirm that the infections we have experienced are firmly under control. Sadly, we have to report that a few residents have died, some of whom were already in end of life care. Our condolences are with their families and loved ones. However, it is very assuring that we have also witnessed a high number of recoveries. At one home, over 80% of residents with the virus have recovered, and others are in continuing treatment. This demonstrates the extremely high and effective standard of care within our homes. Our infection control procedures have been effective in preventing further transmission to other residents. We have had excellent support from Public Health England, who has reviewed and approved all our actions and decisions.

We are aware that some of you have an understandable concern about the decision we have made to admit new residents into our homes. We have made this decision in consultation with all the health authorities who advise us, and only once we could be certain that we can assure the safety of all our residents and minimise the risk of infection. By caring for new residents, we will be making our contribution to the whole health system which needs to ensure available capacity in hospitals and the community. We are confident, as are Public Health England with whom we have conducted a thorough risk assessment, that we have the right measures in place for new admissions to be safe.

Strict conditions will apply to new admissions. This will include requesting that any new resident coming from another healthcare setting has had a test for coronavirus. Whether this test is negative or positive, all new residents will be completely isolated within their room for 14 days, during which time they will be cared for by staff in full PPE, following strict infection control procedures. This will avoid any risk of the new resident transmitting further infection within the home. We have implemented further risk avoidance policies, such as optimally allocating the room location of a new resident in relation to current residents. Individual risk assessments will be carried out by our home management team for all new potential residents to ensure that all possible admission risks are minimised.

We trust that this gives you the assurance that we are adequately minimising the risk of Covid-19, whilst maintaining our high-quality service. Our staff are all totally competent in the management of PPE and are following the strict infection control measures we have implemented at all times. We are extremely proud of and grateful to our wonderful care team, many of whom are going well beyond the call of duty to ensure that our service remains running to a very high standard.