How PPE trips to a convent in Milton Keynes borough have helped council prepare for a second wave

In the early days of the covid-19 crisis many of the 47 independent care homes across Milton Keynes relied on the borough council to get hold of vital masks and gowns.

The council’s covid-19 task and finish group heard that the authority, which does not own any care homes, found itself helping out organisations it had never heard of.

“There is a convent in Olney, providing support to retired nuns,” said Mick Hancock, MK Council’s assistant director for joint commissioning.

“We were taking out face masks to the convent. It was unknown to all of us that this place even existed. I actually delivered supplies to the convent and to other care homes ”

The meeting was told that in the early days of the pandemic the council was the only organisation able to get hold of PPE supplies.

And Mr Hancock said even though homes got “very close” to running out of PPE because “supply chains had collapsed” the council had a reliable supply.

“We were going out delivering to providers who were unable to leave facilities.

“I personally took supplies to Willen Hospice which had run out of aprons and masks,” he said.

The task and finish group is holding a series of evidence-taking meetings to help MK Council be prepared for a second wave and/or future pandemics.

Mr Hancock said the council had learned that that where there are services like the convent they need to do more to keep in contact with in the future.

“Where there is a service that we don’t often engage with, we realise now that we probably need to do more of that as we move forward in the future,” he said.

He said the relationship between the council the care homes has changed from one where they were using a “stick”.

They had been insisting on contract terms and conditions for the 1,400 beds the council pays for.

But now there’s been “a heck of a move in that relationship”, where they are working together to deliver good services, the meeting heard.

Deaths from covid have contributed to there being an “unprecedented” 250 vacancies across the council’s 1,400 commissioned beds.

This is threatening the financial future of some of the homes and the council is thinking of ways to help them out.

But councillors on the committee heard that the care system, from care homes to domiciliary care and in support services, had done the best they could in the circumstances.

Now, with PPE, regular testing, and a stable workforce in place Mr Hancock said: “A care home is one of the safest places to be at the moment.”