Northampton and East Northants care homes worst hit by coronavirus

Care homes in Northampton and East Northamptonshire are the hot spot areas that have suffered the most coronavirus outbreaks.

Public Health England data released today (April 29) has shown that until the end of last week there had been 56 outbreaks in the county and care homes in Northampton and East Northamptonshire have made up almost two thirds of that number, with outbreaks in Northampton making up 40 per cent of the county’s virus outbreaks.

Of the 78 registered care homes in Northampton 22 have suffered an outbreak of coronavirus since March 17. It’s worst week for outbreaks was March 31 when there were outbreaks at eight homes.

It is understood that the county-council run Southfield House in Northampton is one of those affected, although the county council has refused to confirm.

In East Northamptonshire Brockfield House in Stanwick is one of the homes affected and has had at least four patients sadly die of the virus.

Of the 38 care homes in East Northants, ten have had a coronavirus outbreak.

The least affected local authority area in Northamptonshire is Wellingborough which has had four of its 31 care homes affected. Corby has had outbreaks in three of its 15 residential homes; seven of Kettering’s 46 homes have had outbreaks; three care homes in Daventry out of 18 have been affected and six of the 25 care homes in South Northamptonshire have had an outbreak.

The care home figures have been released today by Public Health England after criticism the true extent of the pandemic’s impact on elderly care settings was not being made public.

The daily updates being given by Government in the daily briefing have only related to coronavirus deaths in hospitals.

A different data set released yesterday by the Office of National Statistics revealed that up until April 25, 42 Northamptonshire care home residents had died from Covid-19. There was a surge in the death rate in Northants care homes last week.

Yesterday (April 28) Northamptonshire County Council’s director of adult social service Anna Earnshaw gave her condolences to families and outlined the steps the authority and health partners had been taking to help care homes protect their residents.

She said: “Firstly I would like to send condolences to the friends and family of anyone who has lost their life due to Covid-19. Unfortunately care homes by their very nature are a high risk given that the elderly and those with underlying health conditions are most at risk from this virus.

“For that reason adult social services alongside Public Health England, the CCG and CQC worked quickly from the outset of the pandemic to put in place measures to help keep both customers and staff as safe as possible – this remains our priority. A ‘Provider and Care Home’ hub has been in place since then to support all providers with help, advice and additional support. This has since become national best practice and has been mandated nationally as a requirement in all areas.

“Together with the CCG we also set up a provider hardship fund to help care homes manage any financial challenges such as funding PPE and other operating costs they might face during the outbreak. We also regularly contact all care homes across the county to ensure they are fully supported during this time and where we identify any short term issues we can provide the support or equipment to keep them safe until they are back on their feet. We are working very closely with GPs and community health partners around prevention and infection control and with public health to identify and track all cases and outbreaks.

For the last two weeks, with the support of Northampton General Hospital, we have also been able to undertake staff testing for all care home staff ahead of the national programme being launched. We have also set up additional sites, supported by health partners, should we need to move any residents or for any residents that cannot return to their care home from hospital

“Our focus remains the welfare of staff and residents and we continue to do everything we can to protect them at this challenging time.”