‘The challenges are ongoing, but our resilience is getting us through’

A specialist neurological care centre has highlighted the impact of the compulsory COVID-19 vaccination policy for staff as the latest in a series of major challenges for the sector to deal with during the pandemic. 

During one of the most challenging periods for healthcare in living memory, care has been particularly adversely affected, with the loss of staff through the introduction of rules around vaccination being the latest storm for providers to weather. 

Chase Park Neuro Centre has said it, like many other specialist care centres, has lost staff as a result of the new Government-led policy – exacerbating the social care recruitment crisis further – but its team has pulled more tightly together as a result, to continue to deliver the best possible care to its residents. 

“Much of the industry is reacting quite furiously to the Government making COVID vaccination among care homes staff compulsory, because we are the only industry that has been mandated to have all staff double vaccinated by November 11, otherwise, staff will lose their jobs,” says Paul Smith, director of operations at Chase Park, in Whickham, Gateshead. 

“Whatever the rights and wrongs of such policy, we are in a situation whereby people who may have been with a company for many, many years are going to have to be let go, or redeployed to an off-site service, and most care homes simply can’t do that.

“Luckily, across our dedicated staff group, there is only one person who has declined the vaccine.

“Of course, in tandem, what we’ve also got is a population that is tired, a population that is concerned about facing a fourth wave and future restrictions, but as a positive we have a workforce who has come through all of that. 

“At the end of the day, as tiring and as stressful as it has been, we have more resilient and committed staff at the end of it and that’s a strong position to hold.”

Chase Park, a 60-bed care home which provides rehabilitation services to people with neurological and long-term nursing conditions and more recently opened a villa for people living with dementia, has been running at 50 per cent capacity throughout the whole of the pandemic. 

A voluntary decision was made in March 2020 to close one of the two main buildings as some of the residents were highly vulnerable. They have since begun to safely reopen the closed unit with four residents already in situ at the site. 

For operators such as Chase Park and the teams working within the businesses, the impact of the pandemic physically, mentally and financially has also been significant, says Paul. 

“Although there has been some Government support in terms of COVID funding, that has mainly only been for PPE and testing,” he says.

“The testing regime itself has been a huge strain on managers and care, combined with the quarantine of up to 14 days. 

“I don’t think any care home, or any provider, is coming out of this in a healthy state, either the kind of physical and mental health of the teams and the managers in particular, but also on the financial side. 

“We are all trying to dig ourselves out of a very large COVID hole at the moment, but we have chosen a particularly proactive means to do this.”

Throughout the pandemic, Chase Park has continued to invest heavily into its facilities and offering. 

Under the ownership of Dr Niraj Brahmabhatt, Chase Park – a nurse-run service owned by medical practitioners, with management from clinical backgrounds – has strengthened its management team and appointed two non-clinical deputies through internal promotions to support the centre manager, Jane Webber. 

As well as refreshing its therapy team, it also has a new physiotherapist joining and will have both a physiotherapist and an occupational therapist on-site.

Chase Park has also invested heavily in digital technology and rehabilitation technology, including the implementation of a Tyrostation. It has introduced PCS, a person-centered software e-care plan system, as well as the Croner-I governance support system. It has also taken out a subscription with the Royal Marsden for staff to access vital clinical resource support anytime. 

Reflecting on the development of the centre and its team, director Dr Brahmabhatt says: “We continue to invest in Chase Park and our staff. We focus heavily on our culture and progression. 

“We want our staff to feel supported and confident in what they do. We run a staff satisfaction survey every six months as well as a service user satisfaction survey and incentives such as ‘employee of the month’. 

“With several staff starting their careers with us as carers and progressing to team lead and non-clinical deputies, we are committed to creating a culture of continuous learning.”  

Centre manager Jane adds: “Chase Park is very special and one big family. We believe in developing people, and they really do count every single day. 

“We currently have seven new recruits coming on board, we’ve also had an influx of nurses and we are now looking at tier two applications. If anyone is considering a career in care, we would encourage them to give us a call to find out more, our door is always open.”