Hugo Spalding, Managing Director of Gather Care, has written to the chief executive of the Care Quality Commission (CQC) asking him to use the experiences of the coronavirus pandemic to update its inspection criteria to include infection control.

In the letter to Ian Trenholm, Hugo said: “Ensuring a care home is ‘safe’ is fundamental to an inspection and I believe that protecting residents from transmissible illnesses is an important part of this.

“The COVID-19 experience within care homes has been incredibly challenging for everyone involved in the sector. However, even when the pandemic is behind us, staff will still have the usual illnesses and infections, such as flu, winter vomiting and diarrhoea that can cause serious problems for elderly and vulnerable residents.

“Care homes have a duty to report suspected outbreaks or incidents of infections to the local Health Protection Team, however they receive little in the way of data by return.”

“Clients within the care sector have told us that it is invaluable for them to have access to data that provides a picture of outbreaks of illness, not only within an individual home, but across a group, area or wider.

“This gives an early warning system that allows for precautions to be put in place to help stop the spread.  

“Care staff have done an amazing job since the beginning of the pandemic and they need and deserve all the support they can get.”