A public inquiry in Britain has found appalling lapses in government decisions made during the pandemic, which, among other things, allowed Covid-19 to spread “like wildfire” among vulnerable and elderly people, reports The Guardian.
It also revealed that the so-called “protective ring” around care homes – a long-held claim by former Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Matt Hancock – did not even exist and that the “opposite was true”.
According to the report by Heather Hallett, who is leading the inquiry, and who has rejected his claim, the care sector was an “afterthought”, and the government’s failure to advise that patients discharged from hospitals into care homes should be isolated was a “significant omission”, leading to the virus spreading rapidly among residents and staff.
Hallett also said preventing visits to care homes led to “immense emotional harm” for residents and left them with “profound isolation and a sense of abandonment”.
“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,” she said.
“Most distressingly, some people were not permitted to be with their dying loved ones. Many remain racked by a guilt that they do not deserve to carry.”
More than 43 000 people died from Covid-19 in UK care homes between March 2020 and July 2022.
Hallett’s report, published last week, focuses specifically on adult social care and residential homes and is the sixth of 10 to be published by the inquiry.
It is the most expensive public inquiry in the country’s history, costing more than £200m, and has so far made 55 recommendations on how the country can better prepare for pandemics.
Called to give evidence, Hancock took responsibility for the government decision to discharge about 25 000 hospital patients into care homes to free up NHS bed space before mandatory testing was introduced on 15 April 2020. The policy was later ruled unlawful by the High Court.
Hancock told the inquiry it was the “least worst decision to a terrible problem”.
While Hallett conceded the policy was necessary to free up hospital beds, she criticised the government for not advising care homes to isolate discharged patients.
The inquiry’s chair said it was “wholly unacceptable” that care staff were left without adequate personal protective equipment, that people resorted to using “festival waterproof ponchos, painters’ overalls and gloves purchased from DIY shops”, as well as making their own from fabric, bin bags and bed linen.
She noted the emotional toll on staff, saying: “The scale of death and suffering witnessed by social care staff … was unlike anything they had seen before.” Hallett said this led to post-traumatic stress and suicidal thoughts, and that several care workers killed themselves.
Hallett made eight key recommendations in the report, which included better pandemic planning, financial support to help social care staff to self-isolate, and guidance on visiting restrictions based on the principle that residents have the “right to in-person visitors, except in the most grave or exceptional of circumstances”.
She also said there should be mandatory end-of-life care training for health and social care professionals, including on the use of do not resuscitate orders, after concerns that blanket policies based on age or disability were introduced during the pandemic.
See more from MedicalBrief archives:
UK got it wrong on COVID: Long lockdown did more harm than good
Almost 12,000 people died from COVID caught in an NHS hospital in England
39,000 hospital-acquired COVID-19 infections in England in 5 months
The cost of lockdown: Britain records 70,000 non-COVID ’extra deaths’