Cornwall councillors call for care staff to have equal access to covid testing as NHS staff
Care staff are having to wait longer for their results compared to those who work for the NHS
Last updated 26th Nov 2020
Cornwall councillors have called for more to be done to ensure care staff have the same access to coronavirus testing as staff in the NHS.
Concerns have been raised that staff working in care homes and in domiciliary care in Cornwall are sometimes facing delays in getting results for covid-19 tests.
Councillors have today called for more to be done to ensure that they can have equal access as NHS staff.
Some were concerned that staff in care homes and those providing care to people at home were having to wait longer for test results which could leave them at risk.
While NHS staff are given routine tests which are then processed through hospital labs care staff have tests which are processed through Pillar Two testing which is part of the national testing programme.
Colin Martin, vice-chairman of Cornwall Council’s health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee, said that he had been told of care home staff having to wait up to seven or eight days for a test result.
“The local (hospital) labs are turning tests around in 24 hours but last time I spoke to my local care home they were having to wait seven or eight days for their results to come back from Pillar two testing.”
Colin Martin, vice-chairman of Cornwall Council’s health and adult social care overview and scrutiny committee
Helem Charlesworth-May, joint accountable officer for public health and care for NHS Kernow and Cornwall Council, said that work was being done to ensure that care staff have “equitable access” to testing.
“It is absolutely the case that we are trying to ensure that everyone is having the same access to tests.
“It is clearly the case that care staff are not being tested through the same route that NHS staff are being tested through hospitals. It is also the case that much of the focus has been on residential and nursing care staff rather than domiciliary care staff – that has not been a local choice that is the way that testing has been prioritised nationally.
“Locally we are working really closely with our partners in the residential care sector and domiciliary care sector. We are working really hard to ensure equitable access across the entirety of the sector that does mean that everyone is being treated in the same way – that is much more about how people can access the pillar two testing.
“We continue to highlight the risks associated with that and we continue to work, where we can, to access NHS testing where there is capacity.
“We are doing everything we can to ensure equitable access to testing, training and PPE. It doesn’t always feel like that on the ground but that is more to do with the systems which are operating that are out of our control.”
Helem Charlesworth-May, Joint Accountable Officer for Public Health and Care for NHS Kernow and Cornwall Council
The committee heard that people working in adult social care had undergone big changes in how they work during the coronavirus pandemic.
“Over the last ten months staff in adult social care, both inside and outside the organisation, have been unbelievably flexible in how they approach their work and get us through the pandemic.
“There is an issue around resilience – people feel tired, they have done much that they wouldn’t have done in other times in other years.
“We need to look at how do we, when we come out the other side, to have a more resilient and robust workforce.”
Mrs Charlesworth-May
Councillors heard that there are currently 969 employees in adult social care at the council and heard that since June there had been a rise in absences due to stress.
However since September the levels of staff had returned to those seen before the pandemic.
The committee agreed unanimously to “express its gratitude for the vital work of carers during the covid-19 pandemic” and also “calls for the council and local NHS partners to ensure that the social care workforce is able to access covid testing of an equal standard to the NHS workforce, including accessibility of tests and turnaround time of results”.