Covid inquiry begins probe into care home deaths

THE Covid inquiry has started examining how the pandemic affected care services for older and disabled people, with families describing the crisis as one of the worst failures of the pandemic.

Nearly 46,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales between March 2020 and January 2022, with many deaths happening in the first weeks of the outbreak.

Families have waited years for this part of the inquiry, which will look at key decisions including why hospital patients were moved quickly into care homes in March 2020 without being tested for Covid.

Pete Weatherby KC, representing bereaved families, told the inquiry that a top government official had called what happened a "generational slaughter" in care homes.

"We call out the callous way that family members were treated by politicians and policy makers, referring to them as bed blockers and people nearing the end regardless of the virus," he said.

The inquiry heard how care homes were told to take patients from hospitals to free up beds. Between early March and early June 2020, around 25,000 patients were moved to care homes, many without Covid tests.

Government advice on April 2, 2020 said "negative tests are not required" before patients went to care homes. This only changed on April 15, 2020.

A 2022 High Court ruling found this policy was unlawful because it failed to consider the risk to vulnerable care home residents.

Geraldine Treacy's mother Margaret Stewart died in a care home in Northern Ireland. She said: "The home had to accept people from the hospital, who hadn't been tested and subsequently they became very sick."

She described visiting her mother while wearing protective gear: "She couldn't see who I was and she was very, very upset. She was 87 and she was screaming for her mum."

Care workers described being left without proper protective equipment and testing kits early in the pandemic. One worker in Durham said their home lost 25 residents in three weeks.

"Once Covid was in our care home, it spread like wildfire and we could not do anything about it," they said. "At one point, 67 out of 87 residents tested positive."

Staff had to help families say goodbye over video calls. One worker recalled holding a resident's hand up to an iPad screen so his daughter could pretend to hold hands through the screen as he died.

The inquiry will also examine why "do not resuscitate" orders were placed on some elderly residents without their agreement, and policies that stopped families visiting for months.

Maureen Lewis, who manages St Ives Lodge care home in northeast London, lost seven residents to Covid. She remains angry about former health secretary Matt Hancock's claim in May 2020 that the government had "thrown a protective ring around care homes".

"There was no ring of protection for care homes at all," she was quoted as saying. "He needs to take accountability for the decisions he made."

Hancock will give evidence on Wednesday (2). Bereaved families say they want him to "tell the truth" about decisions made during the pandemic.

Jean Adamson, whose father Aldrick died with Covid in April 2020, called the hospital discharge policy "reckless".

"The way that my father and tens of thousands of other care home residents were sacrificed really gets me because I think it smacks of ageism and disability discrimination," Adamson said.
The inquiry is expected to last five weeks, with 55 witnesses giving evidence. The final report will not be published until next year.