13 residents at Wrexham care home pass away after coronavirus outbreak

13 residents at a care home in Wrexham have died from Covid-19 in recent days.

Lawrence Isted, Chief Officer Planning & Regulatory, on behalf of the Incident Management Team that is currently dealing with the outbreak at Hillbury Care Home, has reported, said the team has will continue to offer its help and support to the facility.

Mr Isted said: “It is with great sadness that we can confirm that 13 residents at Hillbury Care Home have died from Covid-19 in recent days.

“We send our condolences and sincere sympathies to their families and friends and to the residents and staff at the home.

“The multi-agency IMT has met frequently since the outbreak was first confirmed to bring it under control and we will continue to offer our help and support throughout this difficult period.

“We are confident that every precaution has been taken to prevent any further spread of the infection within the home.”

“The safety of residents and staff remains everyone’s number one priority.”

Cindy Clutton, Manager of Hillbury Care Home, said: “We are all understandably extremely upset by the recent deaths and we are working hard to ensure our residents and staff remain safe.

“This new variant is now prevalent across N E Wales and here in Wrexham we are suffering particularly badly.”

“I would like to thank everyone for their continued support as we battle this current and distressing situation.”

Cindy paid tribute to the “fantastic support” they had received from Wrexham County Borough Council, the team of District Nurses and local GPs.

Their priority now was providing care for the remaining 40 residents at Hillbury and keeping them safe and well.

With Covid-19 cases rising in Wrexham, she pleaded with the public to adhere to the well-known safety protocols of social distancing, wearing masks and regular hand-washing to suppress the virus.

The importance of the message, said Cindy, had been underlined by the “scary timeline” of the spread of the disease at Hillbury.

After being “pretty poorly” at home after contracting the virus herself, Cindy has now recovered and is back at work leading her team.

Cindy said: “It is a cruel and indiscriminate disease and I appeal to everybody living in Wrexham to adhere to the official advice in terms of social distancing, wearing masks and not mixing households so we can try and suppress the virus until we can roll out the vaccine.

“Until then the spectre of community transmission is a real and present danger.

“This new strain has ramped up the threat to a whole new level and I hope we can get the vaccine to the residents in all the care homes in North Wales in the days ahead.

“With this virus, time is running out and as we found at Hillbury time can be against you.”

The plea for people to behalf responsibly was endorsed by director Gill Hughes, Pendine Park’s Responsible Individual, who said the level of community transmission in the area was “frighteningly high”.

She added: “As an organisation, Pendine Park has put its heart and soul into protecting the residents for whom we provide care, so the scale and the severity of the loss at Hillbury is truly heart-breaking.

“The fact that the staff kept the virus out for so long is testament to the dedication and tenacity of the team led by Cindy who spared no effort in fighting this horrible disease and continue to do everything in their power to protect the people in their care.

“We are very fortunate and thankful for the support we have received from our local authority, our District Nurses and local GPs, which has been invaluable. We are eternally grateful to them.

“We are also grateful that the vaccination programme in care homes is underway.

“Two of our care homes have received the vaccine and we hope, along with all other care homes in North Wales, the speed of the rollout can be increased so that all residents in care homes protected.”