FEARS are being raised that coronavirus positive patients are being moved into care homes.

Homes in the area say they are facing an uphill battle to keep the deadly virus out of their settings amid “lack of testing and transparency”.

One home in Hove, which wished to remain anonymous, claimed the Lewes Victoria Hospital would not tell them the coronavirus-status of a prospective resident due to “patient confidentiality”.

However, when contacted, the Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the service, it said they would always share this information with homes taking patients.

Other homes in the area have raised fears of a general lack of transparency, or lack of testing, about potential residents coming into their homes.

Peter Kyle, Labour MP for Hove and Portslade said: “What has been so shocking is that even after the crisis passed in our hospitals, we still see patients being discharged, whose coronavirus status is unclear, into care homes.

“The support they are getting is highly unpredictable and our social care system during the crisis is chaotic and lacking efficiency.

“Government can’t say they were not warned, and they can’t say it was a surprise because two months before it was happening here, it was happening in Spain and Italy.

“Even though they knew care homes were becoming infected, they continued the very practices that were spreading the infection into other settings.

“A thorough review would need to take place to understand whether corporate manslaughter has concurred, but because of the sheer scale of lost life, people seem to be treating it differently.

“For 10,000 lost lives is 10,000 people with thousands more family members, sons, daughters, grandsons, granddaughters and lifelong partners who are bereft and asking where the justice is.”

The warnings come as the number of people dying with coronavirus in care homes surpasses the number in hospitals.

Figures which have been released by the Office of National Statistics reveal that twice as many Covid-19 deaths happened in Brighton and Hove care homes in the week leading up to May 1 than had happened in hospitals.

At least 31 care homes in the city have experienced an outbreak.

Romi Pinsent, director of one such home, Carlton House, said: “Without a doubt, there were admissions coming in without a Covid test, I know it’s happening as we have to fight for each test.

“Testing has been a shambles and we have still had nothing at Carlton and we were promised tests two weeks ago last Friday.”

Ms Pinset said she has taken in a community admission, a lady with psychosis who was “in crisis”.

However, the only assurance that the woman did not have Covid that could be provided was that she had been isolating.