As the number of coronavirus cases in the UK continues to rise, health and care staff say they are stretched, exhausted and scared of what a second wave might bring.
“It’s scary,” said Simon Walls, a clinical lead at Saint Cecilia’s Nursing Home in Scarborough which lost ten residents in the space of two weeks during the first spike earlier this year.
One major concern for staff is a lack of reliable testing.
Those cared for at the home are tested for the virus every 28 days, with staff tested weekly. However, a backlog at the UK’s laboratories means Mr Walls has only ever had one Covid test result returned, three weeks after he sent it off.
In July, Amnesty International revealed the UK has recorded one of the highest Covid-19 health worker death tolls in the world, at more than 540 fatalities.
Mr Walls told the PA news agency: “It’s scary because we know it is going to come and it feels like it is only going to be a matter of time until we get our own problems within our own nursing home and within the group.”
