The HSE is offering an increasing level of assistance to nursing homes, according to one local operator.
Sandra Farrell of Ormond Healthcare, which runs Patterson’s Nursing Home in Roscrea, says that staff are increasingly being redeployed to these facilities, and that access to Personal Protective Equipment has also improved.
There remain concerns however about testing for frontline healthcare workers.
Ms Farrell says the turnaround times need to be made much shorter to allow more staff to return to the workforce.
“The turnaround at the moment is between 5 to 6 days for frontline staff in nursing homes – this needs to be looked at and maybe it needs to be brought back to about 48 hours.”
This would mean that anyone that is negative can come back to work once they’re asymptomatic for 48 hours also.
Sandra Farrell says “these are areas of concern still but staff in nursing homes are qualified to look after our older people and our most vulnerable but we do need the support to continue of staff and personal protective equipment supplies.”
