Govt failed to protect care home residents from Covid when sending patients from hospital

27 April 2022, 10:53 | Updated: 27 April 2022, 16:24

The Government failed to protect thousands of elderly and disabled care home residents who died after being infected with Covid, the High Court has ruled.

The policy of discharging patients from hospital to care homes when early on in the pandemic did not take into account the risk to vulnerable residents in homes from asymptomatic transmission.

In a ruling on Wednesday, Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham concluded that policies contained in documents released in March and early April 2020 were unlawful because they failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission of the virus.

They said that, despite there being "growing awareness" of the risk of asymptomatic transmission throughout March 2020, there was no evidence that then health secretary Matt Hancock addressed the issue of the risk to care home residents of such transmission.

The ruling said: "In our judgment, this was not a binary question, a choice between on the one hand doing nothing at all, and on the other hand requiring all newly admitted residents to be quarantined.

"The document could, for example, have said that where an asymptomatic patient, other than one who has tested negative, is admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for up to 14 days.

"Since there is no evidence that this question was considered by the Secretary of State, or that he was asked to consider it, it is not an example of a political judgment on a finely balanced issue.

"Nor is it a point on which any of the expert committees had advised that no guidance was required.

"The drafters of the documents of March 17 and April 2 simply failed to take into account the highly relevant consideration of the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from asymptomatic transmission."

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"We sent people with Covid back to care homes"

Two women whose fathers died from Covid welcomed the ruling after taking the case to court.

Dr Cathy Gardner, 60, and Fay Harris, 58, both said Boris Johnson should resign as a result.

"I think absolutely the Prime Minister should resign," said Dr Gardner.

"There are so many reasons why the Prime Minister should resign."

Ms Harris added: "I think Boris Johnson should resign - because of this and for other reasons."

Mr Johnson has also been under fire over the Partygate scandal, where he allegedly attended several gatherings during the pandemic.

He has faced several calls from opposition parties to step down, particularly after he and Chancellor Rishi Sunak were fined over a birthday bash in June 2020.

The PM said during PMQs on Wednesday that he wanted to "renew my apologies and sympathies for all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic".

He added: "The thing we didn't know in particular was that Covid could be transmitted asymptomatically in the way that it was and that was something that I wish we had known more about at the time."

A spokesman for former health secretary Matt Hancock said: "This court case comprehensively clears ministers of any wrongdoing and finds Mr Hancock acted reasonably on all counts.

"The court also found that PHE (Public Health England) failed to tell ministers what they knew about asymptomatic transmission.

"Mr Hancock has frequently stated how he wished this had been brought to his attention earlier.

"Mr Hancock's thoughts are with everyone who lost loved ones, and we must ensure that all the right lessons are learned."