Worcester care home manager says early stages of pandemic were "frightening"
Matt Hancock will be quizzed by MPs today over the Government's handling of the pandemic
The manager of a care home in Worcester says the early stages of the pandemic were "very frightening".
Today the health Secretary Matt Hancock will answer questions from MPs into how the Government handled the pandemic.
It's part of the joint inquiry of the Health and Social Care Committee and Science and Technology Committee into what lessons can be learned.
Dulcie Link, manager of Red Hill Care Home in Worcester, said: "I just stopped watching the news after the first few weeks because it just scared me even more.
"Many of us didn't have annual leave. We just came in everyday and got on with it.
"Listening to the news didn't help. It just fuelled people concerns, anxiety and fear really."
Despite the care home closing its doors two weeks before the national lockdown came in, some residents at the home lost their lives to Covid-19.
Ms Link says a lack of testing contributed to those lives lost and that morale has fluctuated over the past 15 months.
Ms Link continued: "During the first wave the morale was quite high, it was a bit like the war years.
"We were keeping each other going. We were all frightened, I was frightened but we got on with it.
"Luckily we have a garden here but during the winter months it was too cold to use that which definitely had an impact and everyone was really fed up.
Mr Hancock will be asked about the handling of care homes during the first few months of the pandemic after many residents died of coronavirus and there was a shortage of PPE.
Ms Link added: "I think the Government should have been more dynamic in their approach.
"We've got clinically, unwell and vulnerable patients so I think we should have been made a higher priority than we were.
"I think testing should have started earlier. I think we were probably about two weeks behind and we still are now."