Coronavirus and care homes – a BBC documentary

Don't miss a new BBC investigation into care homes during the pandemic from the File on Four team on Radio 4. It aired last night (19 May 2020) but is available on BBC Sounds to listen to again for up to a year. 'Coronavirus: the care homes catastrophe' was produced by Rob Cave and Helen Clifton, with reporter Jane Deith.

Through interviews with care home managers, care staff, residents and relatives, the programme charts the past few weeks of the virus and follows the individual cases of several victims of Covid-19.

Key spokespeople are interviewed about the current state of social care nationally, and lessons are pinpointed that may be learnt from the pandemic. Claims emerge of a care sector given 'bad advice'; regarded as 'poor cousins of the NHS' with only 'the tail end of resources'; and of homes 'under pressure to take people with the virus from hospitals'.

One staff member in the forefront of experiencing serial bereavements at their place of work said, 'You can't grieve, you've just go to move on… It's a constant cycle.'

Meanwhile, one grieving son said of staff in the care home where his father died: 'They are the real heroes, they created a relationship with my father… but they don't have the system in place to cope.'