NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Covid 19 coronavirus: On a Scottish Isle, nursing home deaths expose a scandal

By Benjamin Mueller
New York Times·
25 May, 2020 08:16 PM9 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

John Gordon, right, with his father, John, who died in Home Farm. Photo / Gordon family via The New York Times

John Gordon, right, with his father, John, who died in Home Farm. Photo / Gordon family via The New York Times

At the Home Farm nursing home on the Isle of Skye, more than a quarter of its residents died and nearly all were infected with coronavirus. Families are furious.

On the Isle of Skye off the western coast of Scotland, residents thought they had sealed themselves off from the coronavirus. They shuttered hotels. Officials warned of police checks. Traffic emptied on the only bridge from the mainland.

But the frailest spot on the island remained catastrophically exposed: Home Farm, a 40-bed nursing home for people with dementia. Owned by a private equity firm, Home Farm has become a grim monument of the push to maximise profits at Britain's largest nursing home chains, and of the government's failure to protect its most vulnerable citizens.

Today, all but seven of the residents have been stricken. More than a quarter are dead.

READ MORE:
• Covid-19 coronavirus: Another day of zero Covid cases for New Zealand
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Experts divided about right time to move to level one
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Jacinda Ardern - social gathering limit to increase to 100 for churches, funerals
• Covid 19 coronavirus: Jacinda Ardern's plan for at least four more weeks of level 2

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The virus has ravaged nursing homes across Europe and the United States. But the death toll in British homes — 14,000, official figures say, with thousands more dying as an indirect result of the virus — is becoming a defining scandal of the pandemic for Prime Minister Boris Johnson.

By focusing at first on protecting the health system, Johnson's strategy meant that some infected patients were unwittingly moved from hospitals and into nursing homes. Residents and staff members were denied tests, while nursing home workers begged in vain for protective gear.

"We were witnessing horrendous images in Spain and Italy, so a lot of attention was paid to maintaining and securing the National Health Service," said Dr. Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, which represents nursing homes. "The NHS was prioritised at the expense of social care."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

At Home Farm, set above a silvery loch on a northeastern finger of the island, employees do not know how the virus got inside. But early in the pandemic, they expressed fears to their bosses about the company bringing in workers from outside the island. And they fretted over the half-dozen new residents who were deposited in empty beds, some of them from hospitals and others from their own homes.

Responding to the outbreak, the Scottish health secretary said a review should be conducted of its entire nursing home system, which falls under Scottish government control. In England, an independent commission is looking into "serious potential breaches" of human rights in nursing homes.

Discover more

World

As Paris tiptoes toward normalcy, infections are sharply down

22 May 05:00 AM
World

The project behind a front page full of names

24 May 07:48 PM
World

They survived the worst battles of WWII. And died of the virus

24 May 08:38 PM
New Zealand

Mixed reaction to 100-limit rule

25 May 08:59 PM

Problems funding nursing homes, a bugaboo in British politics since Margaret Thatcher privatised them in 1990, hobbled Johnson's predecessor, Theresa May, whose proposal to raise resident fees was nicknamed the "dementia tax."

Now Johnson is feeling the heat. In the House of Commons, he faces a weekly barrage over nursing homes, including accusations that he lied about government guidance playing down the chance of outbreaks.

"People in nursing homes, they don't have the same voice as I have," said John Gordon, a member of the local council from Skye, whose 83-year-old father is one of 10 Home Farm residents to have died. "The government has failed our old people."

Britain's hospitals are revered for providing free, universal health coverage. But the nursing home system is a decidedly American export, with corporate giants based in offshore tax havens often paying workers the minimum wage and trying to wring profits out of an aging population.

Anger over nursing home deaths is being directed at Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Photo / Andrew Testa, The New York Times
Anger over nursing home deaths is being directed at Prime Minister Boris Johnson. Photo / Andrew Testa, The New York Times

For-profit nursing homes now control even more of the British market — 86 per cent — than the US market. And the biggest chain, HC-One, which owns Home Farm, has been hit hard. Cases have broken out in two-thirds of its 328 homes. Four employees and 934 residents have died.

Among the dead was Colin Harris, 66, a witty Home Farm resident with dementia and Parkinson's disease.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

In the months before Harris died May 6, staffing was so thin that his incontinence pads were often left wet, eroding the skin on his thighs, Mandie Harris, his wife, wrote in a complaint. His dentures came unglued when he ate.

After a video call April 8, Mandie Harris complained to HC-One that she saw aides without protective gear and a resident's husband walking down the corridor in street clothes. "Where is the infection control?" she asked. In response, the company told her in an email that the man was being hired as a cleaner and that Harris' "teeth appeared clean and secure."

Inside the home, staff members were becoming panicked, said three workers, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they had been instructed not to talk publicly. In early April staff meetings, they pleaded for better protective gear and in some cases ordered their own.

Colin Harris, 66, who died in May. Photo / Harris family via The New York Times
Colin Harris, 66, who died in May. Photo / Harris family via The New York Times

But management told workers to wear masks only around suspected coronavirus patients — an approach that Harris, in her complaint, compared to "closing the gate after the horse has bolted." The company told her that aides who wanted masks were provided with them starting April 9. Not until April 18, a week before the outbreak, were masks required.

Even so, managers sometimes refused to wear masks themselves, including on medicine rounds to residents' rooms, complaining that they itched, the three workers said.

Soon after a nationwide lockdown went into effect in March, a new deputy manager arrived from Kent, in southeastern England. HC-One has said she isolated before starting work. But that was before she made the 1045km journey to the island, the employees and HC-One said. She eventually became sick and stopped working, the company said.

Feeling unprotected by management, employees cleaned the home obsessively and enforced their own distancing rules. When residents were startled, as they often were, aides held their hands and stroked them. Sometimes employees broke down crying.

"People were petrified," one of the employees said.

For HC-One, the nursing home business has been lucrative, as the company paid more than 50 million pounds, or nearly $99 million, in dividends from 2017 to 2019.

But staff members at Home Farm suffered. During 12-hour shifts, they sometimes made do with no more than one nurse and two aides on an 18-bed floor, employees said. The residents' help buttons buzzed incessantly.

Staffing shortages were so dire, regulators said in January, that Home Farm stopped accepting new residents. An inspection found that the home was unclean, staffing was uneven and "the level and quality of care and support people received was not always adequate."

HC-One said it "faced chronic recruitment challenges," forcing the home to rely on temporary workers.

The hospital in London where Boris Johnson was treated for coronavirus. Britain's hospitals are revered for providing free, universal health coverage. Photo / Andrew Testa, The New York Times
The hospital in London where Boris Johnson was treated for coronavirus. Britain's hospitals are revered for providing free, universal health coverage. Photo / Andrew Testa, The New York Times

But as the pandemic raged in Britain, the moratorium on new admissions at Home Farm was lifted. When employees complained about the risk of transmission and even volunteered to temporarily move into the home to avoid carrying the virus inside, management said beds needed to be filled with paying customers, two workers said.

HC-One said that, like other homes, it was asked to help hospitals by admitting some patients.

In late April, employees' fears were realized: An aide tested positive. Employees said they learned the news not from management but from Facebook, where the aide's mother posted about it.

Residents, too, were showing symptoms, like slackening appetites and high temperatures. By April 27, a Monday, staff members were adamant that residents needed help. Management urged them not to worry, arguing that it was just the flu, the three workers said.

At the time, testing was scarce: Not until days later did Scotland say it would offer tests to any nursing homes with cases. So only four of the home's 36 residents were initially given tests. Blanket tests later that week revealed the calamitous extent of the outbreak: 28 residents were infected, along with 26 of 52 staff members.

• Covid19.govt.nz: The Government's official Covid-19 advisory website

Residents' families said administrators were slow to acknowledge the likely spread. Up until her husband's positive result, Harris said, management told her he was being treated as if he had a chest or urinary tract infection. Later, Harris said management insisted he was tired, but nothing worse, only for her to see him on a video call "looking deathly."

HC-One attributed the number of infections in part to Home Farm being "one of the first care homes where everyone was tested." The company said it was "confident the manager acted appropriately with regards to Mr. Harris' health."

Police are now investigating the deaths of three residents. The local health service has stepped in to help run Home Farm. Regulators tried this month to take HC-One's license in court but have since backed off.

In the absence of details about the outbreak, islanders said, rumours multiplied and staff members were unfairly blamed.

"It's a well-connected community," said Keith MacKenzie, the lone reporter for the local West Highland Free Press during the outbreak. "But of course in well-connected communities, it's not always the right information that gets circulated."

Britain's nursing home chains, already carrying substantial debt, have been imperilled by rising costs and plunging occupancy rates during the pandemic. HC-One warned that its "ability to continue as a going concern" was in jeopardy.

But nursing home finances are difficult to trace. The HC-One group includes 62 companies, 19 of them registered offshore, and its parent company is based in the Cayman Islands.

"It's money before care all the time," Harris said. "The staff they did have worked so hard, but they've been let down."

On the afternoon of May 6, nurses called Harris to tell her that her husband's breathing was failing. She hurried over. Zoe Docherty, their daughter, was already in protective gear, holding her father's hand.

Docherty asked that her mother be allowed inside; management had said they could take turns visiting. But she and a nurse disagreed about how to choreograph the swap, and at Docherty's frantic urging, the nurse left to consult colleagues.

Meanwhile, Harris died, with his wife looking through the glass from outside.


Written by: Benjamin Mueller
Photographs by: Andrew Testa
© 2020 THE NEW YORK TIMES

Save

    Share this article

    Reminder, this is a Premium article and requires a subscription to read.

Latest from World

World

'Trauma no doubt': Survivor's incredible tale after missing 12 days

12 Jul 05:11 AM
World

38 killed in deadliest day of anti-Government protests in Kenya

12 Jul 04:31 AM
World

How El Chapo's son co-operated for a reduced sentence

12 Jul 04:24 AM

From early mornings to easy living

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

'Trauma no doubt': Survivor's incredible tale after missing 12 days

'Trauma no doubt': Survivor's incredible tale after missing 12 days

12 Jul 05:11 AM

Her van broke down 35km off-track in dense bushland near Karroun Hill.

38 killed in deadliest day of anti-Government protests in Kenya

38 killed in deadliest day of anti-Government protests in Kenya

12 Jul 04:31 AM
How El Chapo's son co-operated for a reduced sentence

How El Chapo's son co-operated for a reduced sentence

12 Jul 04:24 AM
Trump visits Texas as flood response faces scrutiny and criticism

Trump visits Texas as flood response faces scrutiny and criticism

11 Jul 11:03 PM
Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky
sponsored

Solar bat monitors uncover secrets of Auckland’s night sky

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP