Behind the scenes at Heatherside Care Home during pandemic

Steve Morton, manager of Heatherside Rest Home in Nately Scures, has said that he is thinking "long-term" about the effects of not seeing family members whilst visitors have not been allowed in, stressing that the plans are still at an early stage.

It comes as he exclusively speaks to The Gazette about life in a care home during the coronavirus pandemic.

The 52-year-old, who retrained four years ago after a career as a chef, only took over the home in July 2019, and less than a year into the job was faced with an unprecedented global health crisis.

He described the pandemic as a "shock to the system", continuing: "It was a challenging time at the beginning because it was such an unknown to everybody. They are all expecting the worst, expecting the hospitals to be overloaded.

"It was something that nobody has dealt with before and there was unsurety. But actually, it has not been that bad."

Heatherside, which locked down to visitors on March 17, has remained Covid-free throughout the pandemic.

"You plan for the worst and hope for the best," Steve continues. "The staff have been amazing."

Among the measures put in place to try and keep the home Covid-free include a "very rigorous" cleaning procedure, staff wearing masks through shifts, and all visiting health professionals and maintenance staff have their temperature taken, use hand sanitiser and put on PPE.

And whilst some care homes have complained of a lack of PPE during the outbreak, Steve says that there has been "no problem at all".

"My head office were right from the outset in control of that. It was almost like they were one step ahead.

"We have always got more than enough. Every week we will do a PPE stock take and send that to our coronavirus team [at Pearlcare HQ, who run 15 other care homes around the country].

"They will make sure that they have enough stock, but they were right on the ball. We do use a lot more PPE, there is no doubt about it. Our use went up massively and unfortunately so did the prices because there was a suspected shortfall.

"It was almost like the toilet roll scenario, where there was panic buying, but it never really amounted to anything for us."

But away from the operational challenges that Steve and his team have faced over the last four months, there has also been others.

With visitors not allowed, some of whom would be at Heatherside every day, they have had to find new ways of keeping the residents entertained.

Some of the activities have included balloon tennis, watching films, quizzes, a game of hangman, and recently even a pamper session.

"We have to be there for residents if they are feeling low. It has been quite bewildering to them what is going on in the outside world.

"A lot of them can't quite seem to fathom what is going on."

Talking about locking down and stopping visitors, Steve explains that the measures were taken "to keep everyone alive".

"If this gets in, it will kill most of our residents, so we had to be careful. We have had amazing support from the [North Hampshire] CCG and the CQC and our head office."

But understandably, as lockdown continues to ease for most other parts of life, with gyms, swimming pools and leisure centres the latest to do so at the weekend just gone, there is hope that residents might get to see family members face to face once more.

"We are putting together plans on how we make a safe visiting room," Steve explains, saying that they are "thinking ahead".

"The guidelines at the minute say visits are still not allowed. I have submitted plans, as have other care homes, to make a safe visiting room where it will be maybe one or two family members at a time.

"Unfortunately at this moment in time, it does not include physical contact.

"We are thinking more long-term. Should this go on for another year, two years, is it feasible to put a summer house in the garden in the middle of winter?"

But in the last few months, residents at Heatherside have been able to see loved ones, even though it was through a window.

The team have managed to set up a space outside a spare room as a safe area for family members to visit.

There, they can stand outside the window, and talk via walkie talkies to their loved one.

"We did that pretty much from the beginning because I really felt that any contact was going to be beneficial.

"The loss of contact was really starting to take its toll. First and foremost, we have to protect our residents. That has been very popular."

But Steve is the first to admit that his home's response to the Covid-crisis has been a team effort.

"I want to say thank you to all the staff. Every member of staff at Heatherside has been absolutely amazing.

"The support and encouragement that we have had from families. They have been suffering as much or maybe a little bit more. The whole thing I can’t fault anybody really.

"I listen to the horror stories on the radio and I don’t want to tempt fate, but we have been incredibly lucky. I have not really had any cause for concern."

In his first care home manager gig since retraining, he has had a unique perspective of how people have changed their view of care workers recently.

Just a few months ago, they were listed as unskilled jobs as the government prepared to set new immigration laws ahead of Brexit, but since the Covid outbreak, people up and down the country have taken to their doorstep to applaud them, as well as all the other key workers making a difference.

"I stepped out of the kitchen, from my comfort zone, and I had so much respect for the people who did this. I found myself as a home manager and then Covid started.

"The outpouring of appreciation makes me proud to be in this industry. It is an affirmation of me taking the right choice at the age of 48 to go into an industry that is thought of as an industry of people who don’t have many qualifications.

"I have known that to be different and I hope that all continues and that it doesn’t disappear. We are just as important as the guys who make £100,000 up in the city of London. These people are the spine of the country."