Covid-19 test with 20-minute result ‘may allow care home visits’

Chief executive of Care England, Professor Martin Green, says a Covid-19 test which can give results in 20 minutes may mean relatives could visit loved ones in care homes. He told MPs on the Health and Social Care Committee that access to testing has been “patchy”, and called for a clearer, more centralised system. MPs also heard that care home and domiciliary care staff feel like the “underdogs and the Cinderellas” compared with members of the NHS, and that testing in home care settings has been limited. Sue Ann Balcombe, registered manager at the Priscilla Wakefield House Nursing Home in north London, told the Health and Social Care Committee: “I think the recognition that the NHS has as a professional body is not the same for social care.