Hello Everyone,
I feel it appropriate to bring everyone up to speed over recent developments.
The home swabs were taken on Tuesday 28th December, but the results didn’t arrive back until late on New Year’s Day, which unfortunately was the same day that we had notification that a member of staff tested positive.
Fortunately, the member of staff however had not been in the home for 5 days prior to her result.
To compound our predicament some of our resident families informed us that they also have either been in contact with a positive case or had tested positive themselves.
To minimise the risk to both residents and staff we decided that we would endeavour to retain door visits to ensure that the impact and disruption to our residents would be minimal.
However, since New Year’s Day, we have had a further 2 staff members test positive on an LFT and they are awaiting their PCR results.
As a precaution, another whole home swab was completed today.
Frustratingly for us all, it seems to be that the time from taking the swab to receiving the result is taking between 5-7 days. Whilst we believe this to be unacceptable, the matter is unfortunately out of our control, and we have to adjust accordingly.
We are looking at ways look to reduce pressures on the staff team so could we ask for your help and support as we complete daily testing to minimise the risk of infection to our residents, albeit with a depleted staff pool due to isolation requirements.
Testing is a timely process so we would ask you to refrain from calling the home before 9:30am and at mealtimes (11:30-1:15) (3:30 – 5:15) these are our busiest as we will be providing additional support to our residents.
An alternative method of communication might be to contact me by email if you require.
information about your loved ones. As some family members will testify, I have been known to respond to enquiries in the early hours of the morning.
Please be assured that we have contingencies in place and staff on standby ready to provide support should the increase in infection in the local community continue, thereby ensuring that the home runs as smoothly and safely as possible.
Can I thank you all again for the support that you have already given us in these hard times, and hopefully by working together we can address and overcome any new challenges as they arise.