The Covid vaccine is failing thousands of older people receiving care in their own homes because they are too weak to travel to vaccine centers or fear of infection if they do, a care provider has said.
Cera said only about 1% of the 10,000 elderly people who looked after their own homes had received the injection, and that less than a third of her carers had received the vaccine.
In comparison, about 75% of care home residents received the vaccine, health secretary Matt Hancock said Sunday. NHS England’s target of not all care home residents being vaccinated was not achieved by the end of last week, but the Department of Health and Social Care’s (DHSC) target for completing the jobs by this coming Sunday.
One of the largest care home companies, Four Seasons Healthcare, said on Monday it had vaccinated more than 80% of residents and more than 60% of its employees. The St. John’s Command Trust, which operates 66 homes, said the vaccine was received, but a smaller proportion of staff.
Dr Nikita Kanani, NHS England’s medical director for primary care, told GPs earlier this month: “We expect local PCN vaccination services to deliver the first dose of the Covid vaccine- 19 to care for home residents and staff in older adult care homes. … No later than… Sunday 24 January. ”
While people cared for at home are not in the same highest priority group as those in care homes, more than half of Cera’s clients are over 80, who are placed in the second bracket with the highest priority for the vaccine, and are entitled to receive the vaccine by 15 February.
Most remain unvaccinated, the group said, based on records their carers make of whether or not a client has received the vaccine. Cera believes that this trend is likely to be seen across the home care industry, which looks after around half a million people in the UK, although industry groups have pointed out that such data is not available. collection regularly and it can be difficult to be sure a client has been vaccinated.
Dr Ben Maruthappu, Cera’s chief executive, said: “While we were right to prioritize older people for vaccines, we have neglected the supply and lifestyle challenges many of them face in attend meetings.
“Our data presents a serious problem that needs to be addressed urgently. If those who are unable or unwilling to attend remote vaccination meetings do not get their own homes, we will continue to see the virus spread among the most vulnerable and we will not be able to Reduce R sufficiently. ”
He said the problem was moving vulnerable residents from their homes to doctor’s or vaccine centers to get the injection, their fear of attending clinical situations and catching Covid, and a measure of vaccine laziness behind low numbers.
Cera is urging care workers to be trained to provide jobs and to introduce mobile units to get doses for vulnerable people receiving home care. They said 29% of their staff had been vaccinated. Each of them usually looks after two or three messages a day in different situations.
Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum, which represents non-profit care practitioners, said: “People receiving care at home are often unable to travel to vaccination centers or surgeries, and so it will be important to understand what these data tell us about the introduction of vaccines for people living in the house. ”
The DHSC and NHS England have been asked for their views.