Residents in care homes were pushed to the margins during the Covid-19 crisis and effectively sacrificed in the effort to ‘protect the NHS’, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry has concluded.
More than 43,000 care home residents died after infected hospital patients were discharged into facilities without sufficient safeguards, allowing Covid-19 to ‘spread like wildfire’.
The inquiry said there was no evidence to support former health secretary Matt Hancock’s claim that ministers had placed a ‘protective ring’ around care homes ‘right from the start’.
Many homes lacked the space or resources to isolate new arrivals safely. Testing was in short supply, while care workers faced severe shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE), leaving some to work in bin bags and waterproof ponchos.
Measures to safeguard residents and staff were introduced ‘too late’, Baroness Heather Hallett said, with ‘devastating consequences’.
Between March 17 and April 15, 2020, approximately 25,000 patients were moved from hospitals into care homes as officials tried to create additional capacity for Covid-19 patients.
As infections surged, residents were left feeling ‘isolated, abandoned and alone’. Strict visiting rules separated them from family and friends, sometimes for many months.
Some people were unable to sit beside dying relatives or friends, leaving families ‘grief-stricken’ as they faced the final moments apart.
Residents in care homes were pushed to the margins and sacrificed in the effort to ‘protect the NHS’, the Covid-19 Inquiry found. Pictured: Former health secretary Matt Hancock
Baroness Heather Hallett (pictured), chair of the Covid-19 Inquiry, said Matt Hancock’s claim that ministers had created a ‘protective ring’ around care homes was not supported by the evidence
Our News Outlet led a campaign calling for care home residents to be reunited with their loved ones during the pandemic, branding the bans on visits ‘shameful’ and condemning the ‘cruel’ restrictions.
MPs later praised the campaign in Parliament, and the Government permitted visits again ahead of Christmas 2020, with testing and PPE introduced to reduce the risks.
Baroness Hallett said the restrictions caused ‘enormous harm’, contributing to a ‘significant decline’ in the wellbeing of some residents, particularly those living with dementia.
Although she welcomed the eventual partial easing of the rules, she said the advantages of allowing safe visits should have been acknowledged much earlier.
She concluded: ‘Many [relatives] remain racked by a guilt that they do not deserve to carry.’
The inquiry found that the Government already understood before the pandemic that care home residents faced ‘extreme vulnerability’ to respiratory infections. Yet they received ‘insufficient protection at the time they most needed it’.
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The report attributed many of these failures to inadequate preparation before Covid-19 emerged.
Exercise Cygnus, a pandemic planning exercise held in October 2016, warned that more work was required to guarantee enough emergency capacity in care homes. Those recommendations had not been fully acted on when the outbreak began.
The inquiry said completing that work could have ‘helped ensure the safe isolation of all people admitted to care homes’.
Baroness Hallett said: ‘The adult social care sector as a whole appeared to be something of an afterthought, where the mantra of ‘protecting the NHS’ sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care.
‘The failures set out in this report created environments in care settings in which the virus could spread like wildfire.’
The inquiry examined concerns about ‘Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation’ decisions.
It found some were made inappropriately or without proper consultation, based on a person’s age, health condition or learning disability.
The failure to give staff adequate PPE was ‘wholly unacceptable’ and the care sector’s role in society has been ‘undervalued and under-recognised’ for too long, it added.
Established in June 2022, the UK Covid-19 Inquiry, which has cost more than £200million, is expected to publish its final report in the summer of 2027.
The report into the care sector, the sixth of ten modules, has eight key recommendations.
They include better planning for the safe isolation of care home residents, financial support for staff so they can afford to isolate if infected, new guidelines on visiting restrictions and mandatory end-of-life training for health and social care workers.
Professor Martin Green, chief executive of trade body Care England, said: ‘Pressure in hospitals must never again be relieved by transferring unmanaged risk into adult social care.
‘The inquiry’s recommendations are essential, but the real test now is implementation.’
Health Secretary Yvette Cooper said the Government would respond fully to the report ‘in due course’.
She added: ‘My thoughts are with all those who lost loved ones in the pandemic, and especially those who endured the immense distress and harm of visiting restrictions in care homes, which meant they could not be with loved ones even as they died.
‘I also pay tribute to all those who work to protect the most vulnerable in very difficult circumstances, from care workers to family members.’
