Wolverhampton care home employee with Covid told to stay at work
- Published
A care home employee was told to keep working after testing positive for Covid-19, health inspectors found.
The Care Quality Commission (CQC) discovered the incident at the Leylands Residential Care Home in Wolverhampton.
Inspectors also learned another staff member was encouraged to return to work after being in contact with a person who had tested positive for the virus.
Care home owner Bal Bisla has hit back at the CQC findings, calling the report "very unfair".
He said there had been no hospital admissions or deaths in relation to the findings about staff.
It emerged last year that during the pandemic between its outbreak and July 2020, almost 30,000 more care home residents in England and Wales died than in the same period in 2019, with two-thirds of the sum directly attributable to the virus.
A CQC inspector visited the Penn Road site, where the provider is Angel Care Homes Limited, on 26 January this year, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
The operation was found to be "inadequate" and placed in special measures.
'Neglect'
People were "not safeguarded from potential harm, abuse and neglect", the inspection report said.
It found eleven potential safeguarding issues that had not been referred to the local authority for review.
One staff member "had been told they were required to remain at work following testing positive for Covid-19", the report said.
Mr Bisla said that since the inspection took place a new manager had been appointed and had "asked for help and got nothing from the CQC".
He stated: "We had one very small isolated episode in late December and we controlled it. No-one went to hospital and no-one died."
Mr Bisla said "we are very, very strict on Covid safeguarding" and staff follow the government guidelines "to the letter".
He added: "They do everything possible to ensure everyone in the home gets the best care possible."
Care home residents in England have been allowed one regular visitor since Monday, in the first easing of national lockdown since its reintroduction in January.
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