[set fair (OP)]

I'm asking about care homes rather than nursng homes. Around 20,000 covid-19 deaths in care homes. They must be very ill before they die so why aren't they taken to hospital? What are the criteria by which they decide whether to send a resident to hospital? If they stay in the care home is concentrated oxygen given? What medical treatment do they get in the care home?

[Colin2B]

I'm asking about care homes rather than nursng homes. .... What are the criteria by which they decide whether to send a resident to hospital? If they stay in the care home is concentrated oxygen given? What medical treatment do they get in the care home?

When someone goes into either a care home or nursing home it is generally recognised that this is end of life care, although that end may be many years away. All residents will have a care plan which is agreed with the resident and any immediate next of kin, this will include actions on illness, and will cover levels of treatment, when (or if) to move to hospital, and ‘do not resuscitate’ etc. Respiratory illnesses eg pneumonia are often viewed as a way out for residents, particularly those suffering from dementia, so treatment is often to enable a comfortable death.
The difference between a care home and a nursing home is that the nursing home has registered nurses on the staff. Care home staff would be trained in resuscitation in case of cardiac emergency and a doctor or ambulance would be called as required.

[alancalverd]

They must be very ill before they die so why aren't they taken to hospital?

Quite a few have been discharged from hospital after apparent recovery from acute COVID symptoms, and these are the principal source of infection for others. Having impaired respiratory function, whether following COVID recovery or in the early stages of infection, makes you susceptible to every other pulmonary infection so you die from "normal causes" such as pneumonia as expected. Hence the unreliable COVID statistics. Lots of people die from renal failure a few days after a road accident, so cause of death is recorded as renal failure, not the blunt trauma that caused the failure - it makes the road accident statistics look better.