The chief executive of Care England, Professor Martin Green, said the peak of coronavirus-related deaths in care homes could potentially be months away.
Asked how far behind the peak in hospital deaths the care sector is, he said: “We are a long way behind, because despite what the Health Secretary says, about us being always regarded as a priority, well clearly we weren’t.”
He continued: “Clearly we weren’t at the centre of this pandemic. So I just think the Government needs to understand that, if they knew in January we were the high-risk area, and it’s quite clear from the very start of this that people with long-term and underlying health conditions were the most vulnerable, where every single person in a care home falls into that category, why wasn’t the response quicker?”
Estimating a timescale for the care home peak, he said: “I think it will probably, hopefully, be weeks, but it could potentially be months.”
