After weeks of pressure, the Government has finally caved in, and U-turned to allow local care home testing.

 

Daniel Zeichner MP has been pressing for action since problems emerged in July.

 

Carers were left without tests after they were instructed to stop using the local and efficient Cambridge Clinical Laboratories and use a centralised government system instead. Shockingly carers stopped getting weekly tests and were told they would need to wait until the Autumn for routine tests. This meant care homes were unable to allow loved ones to visit relatives.

 

Now, the government has bowed to pressure and said local testing can resume.

 

Mr Zeichner said: “Finally some common sense has prevailed. It was frankly ridiculous that we had gone backwards rather than forwards in terms of testing. There does seem to be a pattern emerging here – that local systems are doing better than national ones. We’ve seen it too in track and trace. It seems to me the government needs to put more faith in people with local knowledge. From their first statement about a “protective ring” around care homes, government promises on care homes haven’t been worth the paper their written on. I would rather trust local systems that work well to protect vulnerable people living in care homes.”

 

Mr Zeichner also praised Home Managers such as Riet Jones at the Manor Care Home for keeping up “relentless pressure”.

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