Care training directory

COVID-19: Managing the COVID-19 pandemic in care homes for older people

Intended Audience Groups: All

The intended audience includes, but is not limited to, care home staff, primary care teams including general practitioners (GPs), community teams providing care for older people including Hospital At Home teams, hospital discharge teams, and those providing advice on infection control to care homes.

Intended Audience Group

All - (Intended Audience Group )

Topic

Infection Control

Aims and Objectives

Updated November 2020

This guidance is written as the United Kingdom moves into the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is designed to be applicable to care home residents across all four nations of the UK. Residents of care homes for older people have been particularly affected by COVID-19. Across the four nations 28-50% of all COVID-related deaths occurred in care home residents.

Since the BGS first produced guidance on COVID-19 in care homes in March 2020, health and social care teams have learned much about how to manage both the illness and spread of infection in care homes. In addition, there have been multiple versions of government guidance across the four UK nations during the intervening period.

This is an updated version and has taken account of suggestions from colleagues in the care home sector and have therefore designed this version to be brief, outlined as bullet-points, written in plain English, and compatible with all existing government guidance. This guidance covers the following issues that care home staff are likely to come across when managing COVID-19 in a care home environment: