AS THE Covid-19 pandemic gripped Britain, care homes came under “constant pressure” to admit hospital patients who had the virus, a landmark study published today says.

The revelation comes after a report in April by NHS Providers, representing more than 200 NHS trusts in England, boasted that the NHS had freed up 33,000 beds in “record time” by “tearing up red tape.”

Of the 163 care homes and managers surveyed by the Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI), 70 reported that they had received patients discharged from hospitals in March and April who were not tested for Covid-19.

A fifth of the care homes said they received a hospital patient who had tested positive for Covid-19. 

One nurse said they were under “constant pressure to admit people who were Covid-positive.”

Another said: “The acute sector pushed us to take untested admissions. The two weeks of daily deaths during an outbreak were possibly the two worst weeks of my 35-year nursing career.”

A quarter of homes said it had been difficult to get hospital treatment for patients, as they were told during April and May that hospitals had blanket “no admissions” policies. 

A third of homes reported problems accessing GPs and district nurses.

GPs and local managers also imposed unlawful blanket do-not-resuscitate orders on residents, the survey showed.

One nurse said: “We were asked to change the status of all our residents to ‘do not resuscitate’ and ‘not for escalation to hospital.’ We refused.”

QNI chief executive Crystal Oldman said that the findings and the lack of support and access to health services were “symbolic” of how the care-home sector was viewed by those in the NHS and government.

Between March 2 and June 12, nearly a third of care-home deaths involved Covid-19, with 19,394 people dying having tested positive, according to the latest Office for National Statistics data.

Scottish Labour has also raised concerns about the treatment of patients north of the border, after a leaked letter showed that Health Secretary Jeane Freeman had written to health boards congratulating them on the rushed discharge of patients to care homes.

The letter showed that Ms Freeman encouraged moving people from hospitals into care homes despite many being untested –  days after First Minister Nicola Sturgeon denied ministerial involvement in the process.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said that the government “can no longer try to deflect responsibility onto clinicians.”

He added: “Social care has simply not been a priority for the SNP government. This has been exposed during this pandemic with tragic consequences.”