Is our PM, infallible and free of any blame?

Johnson appears to want to appear as the state's "nanny". He talked about putting his arms round care homes. Ironic or what?

PS. Perish the thought I end up in a care home and he were ever to put his arms round me!

Didn't care homes say they didn't want to use PPE as it would 'scare the residents’ ?

Or was it the bosses were not wanting the expense, as it cut into their profits ?

Bet those bosses are Tories

Both, Urmston.

Care homes are privately funded, we pay huge amounts of money for our loved ones to be cared for.

Boris is correct in blaming the care home management for not providing the correct PPE for the staff and residents, it is and always was upto them, just as it was upto Tesco etc to put up screens and provide hand sanitizer for their staff.

You can blame the government for failing the NHS and state schools, but care homes are a lucrative private business and they make enough money to protect their own staff and residents.

But should care homes be a lucrative private business?

Anyway, we should worry, because dengue fever and bubonic plague have been detected in China now so it'll take more than a face mask and a plastic pinny to stop that getting through your skin.

Bubonic plague often pops up in other countries EllanVannin. We don't hear about it because it's under control these days. There appears to have been a vaccine against it since 1890 but it has been improved since then.

There is a vaccine for Dengue Fever but it is only given to those in countries that are affected to those who have had it.

I do apologise for being someone who finds out about things before frightening everyone as I know it irritates you.

China, the centre of the universe for outbreaks of viruses. Why?

vegansrock

But should care homes be a lucrative private business?

That's a very political question vagansrock. What do you think?

Is our PM infallible and free of any blame?

No.

Urmstongran

China, the centre of the universe for outbreaks of viruses. Why?

It isn't the only centre. Some scientists from Oxford are now claiming that Coronavirus has been dormant in various parts of the world for a long time.

GGumteenth

vegansrock

But should care homes be a lucrative private business?

That's a very political question vagansrock. What do you think?

The care sector has been marketised and used as source of profit for some extremely rich people. On the other hand, some smaller care homes are struggling because local authorities, which have been starved of cash, don't have enough money to fund the true cost of places.

Outsourcing has meant the government can wash its hands of responsibility and say "not me guv" when things go wrong, just as it's done with most of the NHS and schools.

It goes back further than just the current crisis. The Operation Cygnus report in 2017 made it clear that the UK was not prepared for a pandemic.

The report recommended the imclusion of care homes in the planning.

The report was kept secret and virtually ignored by the government. Whatever planning there might have been was not shared with the care homes.

A report on Exercise Cygnus was produced in July 2017 and sent to all major government departments, NHS England, and the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It explicitly recommended that the social care system needed to be able to expand if it were to cope with a “worst-case scenario pandemic”, and that money should be ringfenced to provide extra capacity and support to the NHS.

Concerns were raised about the ability of the social care system to “provide the level of support needed if the NHS implemented its proposed reverse triage plans, which would entail the movement of patients from hospitals into social care facilities ”.

During the coronavirus crisis, care homes have been asked to take recovering Covid-19 patients, leading to concerns that they may spread the infection if not properly isolated and treated, which is not always possible in care settings.

When Hancock was asked about Exercise Cygnus on 28 April, on LBC radio, he replied: “I asked my officials to go back when this first came up in the press a few weeks ago and check that everything that was recommended was done and that’s the assurance that I got.”

However, senior figures in the care sector are raising questions about whether the recommendations pertaining to the care sector have been implemented in full.

Vic Rayner, the chief executive of the National Care Forum, said: “The sort of plan you might anticipate coming from these recommendations has not been evident in terms of a national or local government approach. They might have done this planning behind the scenes, but they haven’t involved the care providers.”

The report states that the Association of Directors of Adult Social Services, whose members commission care services, should be involved in developing a way to assess surge capacity in social care during a pandemic. However, the Guardian understands the association was not asked to do so.

Care England’s Green said the recommendations for expanding capacity and staff levels were not discussed with providers following the 2017 report.

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/07/revealed-the-secret-report-that-gave-ministers-warning-of-care-home-coronavirus-crisis?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook#Echobox=1588852689

Also:

www.theguardian.com/world/2020/may/28/government-rejected-radical-lockdown-england-care-homes-coronavirus

oh well if the Guardian says so............................

Peardrop50

oh well if the Guardian says so............................

What's that supposed to mean?

Peardrop50

oh well if the Guardian says so............................

The Telegraph, the Sun, BBC Wales, the British Medical Journal, Sky and various local papers say so too ...

They all ran the same story.

I think social care should not be provided for profit, but for the benefit of the community, Not sure why that is political. The best care homes, in my experience, are those run by not for profit organisations.

vegansrock

I think social care should not be provided for profit, but for the benefit of the community, Not sure why that is political. The best care homes, in my experience, are those run by not for profit organisations.

Because, while giving what they feel to be good reason, the left would agree with you - everyone contributes to the pool, those that need to draw from it as and when that need arises. The right would not find that matches its small state/low taxes vision/private profit vision.

How many here are choosey when it comes to putting their relatives in a nursing/residential home ? And why ?

What do you mean Ellan?

Why wouldn't you be 'choosy'

Just been reading a very interesting email from Paul Waugh of the Huff Post. First I had to take the big smile off my face while reading his comparison between the (wrongly) attributed Benjamin Disraeli of "Never apologise, never explain" with the one he attributes to Johnson of "never apologise, but do try to explain away your blunders". As he point out it's not quite as eye catching.

He goes on to show how not apologising has just added to Johnson showing once again he is uncaring and incompetent in the eyes of Jeremy Clarkson, Piers Morgan and their followers.

The official spokesman sticking to his script and thus saying very little is his next area for discussion and that Johnson, "replacing his Thursday night ‘clap for carers’ with a Monday lunchtime ‘slap for carers" is "terrible politics on any level".

He goes on to suggest there are a couple of reasons why he didn't apologise. Firstly he may feel that it give him better hope that the enquiry will spread the blame. Second he may have been led by Cummings "Never apologise, partially explain" although I would say that didn't go that well - but perhaps "not that well" was better than they expected.

He goes on to point out that he took two weeks to apologise for the Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe which directly affected someone's life and suggests he may even use PMQs to say something.

Interesting times.

Right, okay, so why do you think that some homes have got it right when others have got it horribly wrong with thousands dying of the virus Dollymc2 ?
Yet Boris and his government are getting the blame for the amount of deaths when these places are all managed in the same way.

EllanVannin

Right, okay, so why do you think that some homes have got it right when others have got it horribly wrong with thousands dying of the virus Dollymc2 ?
Yet Boris and his government are getting the blame for the amount of deaths when these places are all managed in the same way.

I know that when we looked at the home my mother went in it suited her but I can see it may not have suited other people, of other ages, with other conditions. It also happened to be run by Christian group which might mean it really would not feel suitable for some.

Different people do require different homes. For example, even in our hale an hearty days two people might chose very different homes to live in. I don't understand what that has to do with Johnson and his government being tardy and incompetent.