SECRET UNIT TO LEARN LESSONS
Task force to expose virus bungles
BORIS Johnson has set up a “hush-hush” task force to examine the Government’s coronavirus mistakes in the wake of devastation wreaked on care homes.
A special unit within the Department of Health will identify lessons to be learned – and recommend action.
Experts drafted on to the high level panel have been told not to disclose their work, or even their involvement.
One told the Sunday Mirror: “We’re not meant to talk about it, so don’t mention we are involved.”
The Social Care Covid-19 Support Taskforce – known as the Lessons Learned Unit – was set up at the start of June after deaths among society’s most vulnerable reached a peak.
More than 20,000 of the UK’s 45,233 deaths occurred in residential homes.
The task force’s mission is to ensure “concerted and determined action is taken to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid-19” and to “support the national campaign to end transmission... over the next year”.
A key issue will be a crippling shortage of personal protection equipment. Once the task force was set up care homes did receive more supplies.
While the crisis in social care is the main focus, other failings will inevitably be explored – like delays in coronavirus testing, getting the results back and inadequate test and tracing.
The group – including senior civil servants, care home providers and unions – is investigating how best to prepare for a potential second wave of the virus in the autumn. Last week the
PM brushed aside growing calls for an immediate formal inquiry, saying only one would be held in the future.
It is not known whether the work of the task force will be made public.
Bereaved families have marched on Downing Street demanding an early inquiry to give them answers. The PM, who has neither received nor asked for any reports from the task force, said a public inquiry would be held “when the time is right”.
But there are fears any statutory inquiry may not report until after the next election. The day after Mr Johnson’s Commons statement the task force’s head, Rosamund Roughton, resigned. The DHSC said she was taking a “career break” and Whitehall was seeking a replacement. There is no suggestion the two events are linked.
Cross-party MPs last week launched an inquiry, promising a report by autumn. The group, including former ministers, is chaired by Lib Dem Layla Moran.
She said: “From the neglect of care homes to the lack of an effective testing regime, each day brings more evidence of mistakes. There is no time to waste when it comes to learning the lessons from the UK response.”
Care home owner Rachel Hind, 48, of Trafford, Manchester, said: “The Prime Minister might have a secret unit but it is impossible to hush up such catastrophic failings.”