Mirror Image

Covid 19 is holding up a mirror to us all and in so many ways. Care homes in the UK have been at breaking point with 100,000 staff vacancies and evidence of serious underfunding. Yet NHS directives on 19^th March and 2^nd April told care homes to expect patients no longer benefitting from hospital care. Now a third of all coronavirus deaths in England and Wales are happening in care homes. Official statistics show 4,343 deaths from the virus in the two weeks to 24^th April. This raises many questions. 84% of care home beds in England are privately owned and many staff are migrant workers from poorer countries on low pay it would seem. Hopefully, covid 19 has exposed the crises in our care homes for many who may not have been aware.

On the BBC news in the last few days we saw how casual workers in New York are joining the ranks of the homeless and sleeping on subway trains. In the UK there is a homeless crisis also. This raises questions about the social care available in the rich America and elswhere. Again covid 19 is trumpeting social inequality and injustice.

And yet again, according to the Jesuit Refugee Service covid 19 brings into sharp relief a broken Asylum system. The Home Office is struggling to function in the pandemic. Doctors and Nurses seeking asylum are banned from working in spite of the obvious need for all hands on deck. Why not grant them temporary grant of Leave to Remain they say? 

The challenges are there for all to see. Surely we must take stock and deal with the underlying issues of lack of social care for the most vulnerable. It is upon this that a country – any country, can be judged.

Things can’t go back how they were before – Carpe diem.