Covid-19: County Durham care home 'recorded 27 deaths'

Crown Care, which runs the home, would not give a precise number of deaths

The deaths from Covid-19 of 27 residents at one County Durham care home are "shocking" and must now be fully investigated, an MP has said.

Information leaked to the BBC reveals about one third of residents at Sandringham Care Home in Bishop Auckland died with the virus.

Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, said "something has gone badly wrong here in County Durham".

Crown Care, which runs the home, has disputed the leaked data.

The revelation comes as a report from an influential group of MPs said it was a "reckless" decision to allow patients to be discharged from hospital into care homes across England, without being tested for the virus.

The government said it had been "working closely" with the sector.

'Difficult times'

According to council data, obtained by BBC Look North, just under 70 elderly residents have died from coronavirus in the county's three worst-hit care homes.

As well as the 27 at Sandringham, there were 23 at Melbury Court in Durham, which was previously thought to be the care home with the highest number of deaths in the UK, while 18 deaths were recorded at Stanley Park, Stanley.

A spokesman for Crown Care said the figure it provided to the Care Quality Commission, England's health and social care regulator, was lower. It would not give the precise number of deaths.

"Our thoughts are with the families of those who have sadly passed during these incredibly difficult times," the spokesman added.

The spokesman confirmed the home did accept a number of residents direct from hospital.

"We followed government guidelines stringently and ensured appropriate isolation procedures along with the very highest quality of care," he said.

'Invisible disease'

Conservative MP Mr Holden said: "To see yet again anther County Durham care home be right up there at the top of the national list of numbers of deaths in care homes is really quite shocking.

"It's quite clear that something has gone badly wrong here in County Durham and we need to get to the bottom of it with a proper investigation as soon as practically possible.

"It's really clear Durham County Council now needs to explain exactly what they were doing and why they were doing it."

Paul Sexton's 84-year-old mother, Cathleen, died in Melbury Court in May.

He said his concerns about Durham County Council's handling of the crisis started long before then.

Cathleen Sexton died in Melbury Court in May

"I had concerns because it wasn't stacking up that they were putting people with Covid-19 into care homes," he said.

Mr Sexton says he had no complaints about his mother's individual care but felt questions remained unanswered, particularly about how the virus entered the home.

"I guess we'll never know, it's an invisible disease and we're not sure, we're still learning about it," he added.

"We need to come up with something that is going to give those people a fighting chance."

Back in mid April, County Durham's 98 care homes were asked to sign a contract that promised extra funding to deal with the pandemic, on the condition they accepted hospital patients with Covid-19.

Of the three homes where fatalities were the highest, Melbury Court confirmed it did sign the contract while council data suggests Stanley Park also signed it, although the care home disputes this. Sandringham did not sign the contract.

All three confirmed they did accept residents from hospital.

HC-One, which runs Melbury Court, said its thoughts were with all families who had lost loved ones.

"Like many care homes, we were asked to do our national duty and support the NHS by admitting older people who no longer needed to be in a hospital," a spokesperson said.

"We followed the government advice on how to safely accept admissions at all times, including going beyond this to self-isolate individuals for two weeks and implementing barrier nursing as a precaution."

Jane Robinson, head of adult services at the Labour-led Durham County Council, said: "As an authority we have followed national policy and guidance since the pandemic began.

"We are also looking at our response to learn from our experiences and will continue to work with our partners to protect and support care homes."