Thirteen of 27 residents at Edendale Lodge in Crowhurst, East Sussex, have died with confirmed or suspected coronavirus since mid-December, the home confirmed yesterday. More than a third of the staff also tested positive during the outbreak with the latest resident passing away on Monday.
“It was an awful Christmas and terrible for the staff. It is just unstoppable. We are sitting ducks,” said managing director Adam Hutchison who also runs homes in Kent.
The outbreak, detected by routine swab testing, appears to have got through the home’s infection control measures, including a ban on visits, apart from at windows, personal protective equipment for carers and no use of agency staff who operate between different homes.
None of the 14 residents who tested positive had any symptoms when the results came back, while one of the 12 staff who tested positive was admitted to hospital but is now recovering.
Adam added: “It’s hard for me to say how it got in. Because of the protocols we were following, everything was there.”
His company Belmont Healthcare operates four care homes and asks staff to declare if they have second jobs.
But the tragedy lays bare increasing problems facing homes as the virus, including the more transmissible variant, continues to sweep the country. Authorities in East Sussex and Surrey have declared a more general major incident as numbers across both counties soar.
