Corona Crisis: Residential Staff Tell Of Trauma They Witness

We revealed 2 weeks ago the care homes timebomb was about to explode. And now hundreds of people are dying in agony after the Government failed to get a grip. It’s...

- Dan Warburton And Martyn Halle

Hundreds of virus patients are dying in agony in residential homes because staff cannot give adequate end-of-life care, charity chiefs warn.

Some stricken residents will be left feeling “as if they are drowning”, a consultant said yesterday.

Dedicated healthcare assistants paid as little as £8.19 an hour do their utmost to ease the plight of residents hit by Covid-19. But the sad truth is most don’t have the medical skills – or drugs – to aid virus patients who are nearing death.

Intensive care consultant Dr Ron Daniels said it would be “inhumane” if victims did not get drugs to ease their suffering. The Birmingham based doctor said: “We are hearing these stories and have a suspicion that because of the extent of the crisis, some people are not getting the care they should when dying from Covid-19 in care homes. Without drugs to make them comfortable, this is a deeply distressing way to die. They will be gasping for breath and experience the sensation they are drowning. You’d want to offer sedation to ease their path to death. To let them die without drugs to help would be deeply inhumane.”

The grim picture emerged two weeks after the Sunday Mirror warned lack of personal protective equipment and failures to test staff and agency workers made care homes a breeding ground for the virus.