Theresa Steed, our home manager, appeared on ITV News Meridian on Tuesday 12 October, following the release of the Coronavirus: Lessons learned so far report, published by the Science and Technology and the Health and Social Care Committees.
The 150-page report includes evidence from at least 50 witnesses, including politicians, clinicians, care providers and families affected by Covid-19. Theresa herself had spoken movingly and compellingly about the challenges faced by her and the home’s staff during the early days of the pandemic and the impact of the virus on families when she gave evidence to the Coronavirus: Lessons Learnt Inquiry last October.
The inquiry examined key areas of the response to covid-19: the country’s preparedness for a pandemic; the use of border controls, social distancing and lockdowns; the use of test, trace and isolate strategies; the impact on social care; the impact on specific communities; and the procurement and roll-out of covid-19 vaccines. It concluded that although some of the initiatives – such as the vaccine roll out – were praiseworthy examples of “global best practice”, mistakes were made elsewhere with grave consequences for care homes, for example, and things needed to be done differently in future. The need for better communication between the NHS and care homes is certainly an area that Theresa feels strongly about.
“If somebody’s coming out [of hospital] and they’re coming out with an infection, regardless of what source it is, care homes need to know, we need to be prepared,” Theresa told reporter Kit Bradshaw on Tuesday.
Her comments were shown as part of the 6pm and 10.30pm editions of the news programme.
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