COVID-19 in aged care homes: a comparison of effects initial government policies had in the UK (primarily focussing on England) and Australia during the first wave.
Int J Qual Health Care
; 33(1)2021 Mar 16.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1228518
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact globally, with older people living in aged care homes suffering high death rates.OBJECTIVES:
We aimed to compare the impact of initial government policies on this vulnerable older population between the UK and Australia during the first wave of attack.METHODS:
We searched websites of governments in the UK and Australia and media outlets. We examined the key policies including the national lockdown dates and the distribution of some important resources (personal protective equipment and testing) and the effects of these initial policies on the mortality rates in the aged care homes during the first wave of attack of COVID-19.RESULTS:
We found that both countries had prioritized resources to hospitals over aged care homes during the first wave of attack. Both countries had lower priority for aged care residents in hospitals (e.g. discharging without testing for COVID-19 or discouraging admissions). However, deaths in aged care homes were 270 times higher in the UK than in Australia as on 7 May 2020 (despite UK having a population only 2.5 times larger than Australia). The lower fatality rate in Australia may have been due to the earlier lockdown strategy when the total daily cases were low in Australia (118) compared to the UK (over 1000), as well as the better community viral testing regime in Australia.CONCLUSION:
In conclusion, the public health policy in Australia aimed towards earlier intervention with earlier national lockdown and more viral testing to prevent new cases. This primary prevention could have resulted in more lives being saved. In contrast, the initial policy in the UK focussed mainly on protecting resources for hospitals, and there was a delay in national lockdown intervention and lower viral testing rate, resulting in more lives lost in the aged care sector.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
COVID-19
/
Health Policy
/
Homes for the Aged
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Country/Region as subject:
Europa
/
Oceania
Language:
English
Journal subject:
Health Services
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
Intqhc
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