Care homes have therefore being tasked with two enormous challenges 1) treating the very sick for #covid19 for which staff (often on minimum wage) have no medical training 2) to in effect manage end of life and become hospices. Again, this is not what they're designed for.

There are also concerns about how another aspect of end of life is managed. A care home manager told me today she's seen that Respect forms (or do not resuscitate forms) are being distributed at the moment at an unusual rate.

DNR forms are filled out in social care regularly but as @peterkyle says this now seems to be being done, in Hove anyway, "en masse". The suspicion of Kyle and the manager, is that this is authorities managing the disease and easing care/hospital resources at end of life.

The care managers say that these forms are reaching families, precisely at a time when they're emotionally vulnerable and that that is a problem.

Care managers also worry that by asking older people about whether they would like to be resuscitated, in this context, that some are opting to do so because they don't wish to be a burden.

What’s clear, is that social care is in effect being asked to become part of the NHS, to provide things the state would normally provide but without the the resources and the scale that the state brings. It's a unique challenge for a sector which was already in a perilous state.

If you want to learn more, tune into Newsnight now, my piece will be on shortly.

END THREAD

In case you missed it, my report from Newsnight on the #covid19 social care crisis can be viewed here: