Care Homes 'An Afterthought' During Pandemic, Inquiry Finds
Report dismisses 'protective ring' claim as thousands died amid patient discharges and PPE shortages.
Carla Rooney
Over 43,000 care home residents died during the Covid pandemic.
The inquiry's report, the sixth of ten modules, claims the care sector was “an afterthought” during the Covid-19 pandemic. Failings allowed the virus to “spread like wildfire,” resulting in thousands of deaths.
Then-health secretary Matt Hancock claimed in May 2020 that ministers threw a 'protective ring' around care homes 'right from the start'. The UK Covid-19 Inquiry dismissed this as “rhetoric.”
Vulnerable care home residents received “insufficient protection” as hospitals discharged patients without knowing if they carried the virus. Baroness Hallett stated, "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."
Hallett added, "During the pandemic, the action taken by the UK government and devolved administrations to try and protect workers and users of adult social care came too late." Bereaved families called the phrase 'a protective ring' a “sickening lie” and a “joke.”
The inquiry claims this rhetoric does not accurately reflect the lack of action taken to protect care homes across the UK in March and the first half of April 2020. Care home residents experienced isolation and abandonment due to visiting restrictions.
The report found care homes “becoming prisons” for some amid these bans, with many residents feeling “abandoned.” Shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) for care workers were reported, with some resorting to using unsuitable or homemade PPE.
The UK government and devolved administrations knew, prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, of the extreme vulnerability of care home residents to respiratory viruses. Yet care homes received insufficient protection when they most needed it.
Exercise Cygnus, a pandemic preparedness exercise conducted in 2016, highlighted the need for surge capacity in care homes. This was not completed before the pandemic struck. The inquiry has made eight key recommendations, including a call for a voluntary workforce register for adult social care workers to strengthen professionalization and recognition.