As thousands of care staff in Manchester work tirelessly to protect the most vulnerable members of our community, tonight Manchester’s Councillor Bev Craig will ask the city to say a special thank you
With the nation taking to their doorsteps and balconies once again to clap in recognition of the fight against Coronavirus, Cllr Craig, who is Executive Member for Adult Health and Wellbeing is calling for people to celebrate all care providers including care homes, nursing and residential settings and the staff who work there.
In Manchester there are 2,580 people in residential care, with a further 2,700 people supported through at-home care and almost 500 in supported accommodation. Many of those people are in an at-risk age group, or living with a condition that puts them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19, so the care given by our providers and their teams is more crucial than ever.
Support from the Council for the sector included the setting up of a control room to make sure that the social care sector was able to cope, to help with patients leaving hospital and to make sure the care of thousands of people was able to continue.
In the early days of the pandemic a red/amber/green system was implemented across all adult social care provision to help with the supply of PPE; daily phone calls were put in place and care homes were also able to talk to the city’s public health infection control team. This was particularly important for testing in care homes, which Manchester has been doing since early April, building on the decision to test all people being discharged from hospital at the start of the pandemic.
Councillor Bev Craig, Executive Member for Adult Health and Wellbeing, said: “We owe a big thank you to our care provider organisations for their determination to put residents first. And I don’t think enough praise has been given to staff working in the care sector for the work that they continue to do to ensure that people are protected from this virus. From care workers who make daily visits to people at home, care staff in residential and nursing homes and to the behind-the-scenes support staff who are responsible for coordinating everything that we do, we owe a huge debt of gratitude to them.”
