COVID-19 treatments for care home residents
Who is eligible?
To find out who is now eligible for free LFD tests and access to therapeutic treatment see the links to the guidance on the NICE website and on the Community Pharmacy England website.
Who is not eligible?
The changes in the NICE guidance means the following resident cohorts are no longer eligible to receive free LFD tests through the service if they do not meet the eligibility criteria above:
- Anyone residing in a care home who are aged 70 years and over
- People resident in a care home who have a BMI of 35 kg/m2 or more
- People resident in a care home who have diabetes
- People resident in a care home who have heart failure
- People with end-stage heart failure who have a long-term ventricular assistance device
- People on the organ transplant waiting list
How to get treatment?
1. Understand who is eligible.
Make sure you understand which of your residents are eligible. You can seek help from primary care and community care home teams if you are unsure.
2. Get prepared and order lateral flow tests from your local pharmacy.
Free rapid lateral flow tests can be picked up from a local pharmacy for those who are considered high risk and eligible for therapeutic treatment. This has replaced the online and telephone ordering services for free lateral flow tests provided by GOV.UK and 119. We recommend ordering the tests in advance and keeping them ready for when they present with symptoms.
You can find out more about how to obtain lateral flow tests and the local pharmacies offering lateral flow tests on the NHS website. Care homes requesting lateral flow tests for their patients will need to fill in a LFD record form for each patient before any tests can be collected. The form should then be taken to the pharmacy on collection of the tests. If you are unsure of any details, please seek support from the patients GP practice and/or community care home teams.
3. Complete a test
If a resident has COVID-19 symptoms they should take a test immediately, even if their symptoms are mild. If the test is negative but they continue to have symptoms, they should take another test on each of the next two days (three tests in total over three days).
If there are 2 or more residents with respiratory symptoms irrespective of the LFD result, contact your community IPC team for further advice and guidance
4. Refer to the Covid Medicine Delivery Unit if positive.
If a resident tests positive, you should refer to the COVID Medicine Delivery Unit (CMDU) directly via 01158 462 392 as soon as possible after they test positive so that they can consider referring them for an assessment for treatment. The phoneline will be open Monday to Sunday between 8am-4pm. If the CMDU is closed and you have concerns that can’t wait until the following day, please contact 111.
If you have any queries, please contact the ICB Ageing Well team on nnicb-nn.ageingwell@nhs.net
