‘They don’t have time to talk’: residents feel impact of care staffing crisis

theguardian.com:

“There is no joy in the air,” said Anne Thompson, describing the impact of the national care staff crisis on her husband’s Harrogate care home. “There’s no sense of companionship.”

On a recent visit to see Michael, 80, who used to run a steel fabrication company and loved mountain climbing and classical music, she found him looking miserable with his head drooping.

He was quickly restored with a hug, but the stretched staff have little time for such emotional care, said Anne, who said the situation has taken her to “extremes of anger, bitterness and despair”.

“Before the pandemic the staff had time,” she said. “Now they do their best but it’s not good enough any more. They don’t have the time to talk to the residents, hug them, communicate with them. The care is fragmented.

“A lot of agency staff are being used [because rising Covid infections in the community means more permanent staff isolating]. The sense of community they used to have has all but vanished.”

Vida Hall, the care home where Michael has lived for more than six years, is far from the worst in the country. In fact, the latest Care Quality Commission (CQC) report ranks it “outstanding”, as perhaps it should be for a facility that costs £1,600 a week.

In homes inspected recently by the CQC that it rated as “inadequate”, residents have been left in danger of choking, uncleaned and shut in their rooms. But while Anne says staff attend to her husband’s physical needs, even in such a well-funded environment they have to move on after brief interactions.

In the 28 days from mid-June to mid-July, she said he had only been out of his room four times. Michael, her partner for more than 50 years, with whom she used to climb in the Bavarian Alps and Italian Dolomites, has