WHEN news of Covid-19 began to break, Peter Whittick made the difficult decision not to visit his 95-year-old father David in his Erskine Care Home. It just didn’t seem sensible given the risks, he says.

When the home locked down he hoped that would stop the virus in its tracks.

“So I hadn’t seen my father for a couple of weeks when I got the call,” he says. That call in early April was to tell him his gregarious, well liked father – an ex-Navy pilot who won an Arctic Star medal and went on to become a Tristar pilot – was unwell and not expected to live.

“So I went to visit him, and then he rallied,” he says. But the second week he took a turn for the worse. Peter went for another end-of-life visit and was there when he died, on April 14. “It’s so very sad not only to lose someone in the family, but also not to be able to support each other,” he says.

There were only three at the funeral, which would usually have been a packed-out celebration of a life well lived. The family are planning a memorial service as soon as it can be held.

He is full of praise for Erskine and the staff there, but can’t shake off the feeling that, as a nation, we have failed our elderly. “Care homes didn’t get the attention they deserved and I am angry about that,” Peter says. “I feel people were written off.”

With a recognition that care homes will be at the very heart of this crisis for months to come, there are continued calls to ensure they are at the forefront of Covid-19 planning going forward.

According to last week’s figures, 1195 care home residents have died of Covid-19 – 42.8% of all deaths. Some 58% of care homes have reported at least one suspected case since the start of the pandemic.

Derek Barron, director of care for Erskine, which runs four care homes including the one where David Whittick was resident, says long-overdue attention is now beginning to be given to care homes.

“We have now, in our largest home, testing for all our residents and staff, which is a very positive thing to do,” he says. “We would have liked to have seen that earlier, of course.”

He can’t know if earlier testing could have saved lives, but the question gnaws. He wants testing to be not a one-off procedure, but done once a week or more to ensure the charity can keep track of potential risks.

He has concerns about psychological health, too. “The biggest thing we need to focus on is the isolation of our residents,” he says. “We locked our doors on March 16, and no-one is coming unless it’s an emergency. That is a huge ask.

“The rest of the country can now go out for exercise twice a day, but they still can’t see their mum or dad or their husband or wife.

“I can’t believe it’s beyond our ability as a nation to find some way of visiting without opening care homes, that takes full account of infection control.”

As the weeks drag on, he says fewer residents are visibly distressed. “Instead we are seeing more residents who are turning their face to the wall,” he explains.

“Some are no longer eating, no longer taking an interest in what’s going on, and that’s hugely distressing for our staff to see and hugely upsetting for relatives who are unable to be with them.”

At Queen’s House in Kelso, chief executive Dr Jane Douglas is relieved to report that the care home has had no cases of Covid-19. “But every day I am worried it will happen,” she says. “It’s a daily anxiety.”

She is also convinced finding ways of arranging safe visits must now be a priority. “It’s not sustainable for people to continue to be denied visits,” she says. “We are finding that those who have been most psychologically affected are those who are most aware.”

While at her ground-floor care home, residents can wave through the windows at relatives, she aspires to find a way that balances risk of infection with the need to protect mental health and wellbeing.

“It could be a safe, outdoor room, where social distancing could be practised but people could have a private conversation,” she says. “We have been using technology, but it’s not the same.”

And she claims that long-term strategies on sourcing PPE are still desperately needed. Her housekeeper still spends two to three hours a day on the phone negotiating with suppliers, some of whom prioritise the NHS over care homes. “I think there needs to be central procurement for PPE now,” she says.

The Scottish Government has said it is committed to protecting care home residents, with the First Minister promising during Friday’s coronavirus briefing to “take whatever steps are necessary”, adding that the protection of the elderly was “paramount”.

Families can only hope these steps are being taken with urgency. “We know that our experience is being replicated up and down the country,” says Peter Whittick. “There are a lot of people hurting.”