Coronavirus: Hundreds sent to Staffordshire care homes without tests

Patients returning to care homes from hospitals should be tested, even if they have no symptoms

Hundreds of hospital patients were not tested for coronavirus before being discharged to care homes in a county in the weeks before checks became routine.

From 15 April, the government said all patients discharged from hospitals would be tested for Covid-19.

A Freedom of Information (FOI) request found less than a quarter of patients discharged to Staffordshire homes were tested between 1 March and 15 April.

The hospital trust said it "followed guidance available at the time".

The FOI request was submitted by the Local Democracy Reporting Service to the University Hospitals on North Midlands NHS Trust (UHNM), which runs Royal Stoke University Hospital and Stafford's County Hospital.

It found between 1 March and 15 April, 165 patients were tested before being discharged to care homes out of 694 patients discharged to care homes during those 41 days.

Of those 165 patients, 54 tested positive and 111 were negative.

Latest figures have shown there were 41 confirmed deaths involving coronavirus in Stoke-on-Trent care homes between 10 April and May 29.

In Staffordshire care homes there were 182 confirmed deaths involving Covid-19 during the same period

This includes 10 deaths within four weeks at Limewood Nursing and Residential Home in Stafford.

Ten residents died at Limewood Nursing and Residential Home within four weeks

UHNM's chief executive Tracy Bullock told members of Staffordshire County Council's corporate review committee last week that since national guidance came out, "every single" patient had been tested prior to discharge.

The trust's chief nurse, Michelle Rhodes, said: "We followed government and Public Health England guidance available at the time regarding discharge of residents back to care homes.

"We are also working closely with our local authority partners to ensure the highest standards of safe care for our patients discharged into the community."