Johnson faces backlash after hinting care homes helped spread virus

Anger as Prime Minister suggests the sector may not have complied with proper procedures

BORIS Johnson last night became embroiled in a row with care home chiefs after suggesting their establishments fuelled the spread of Covid by failing to follow the correct procedures.

They said his comments were “outrageous” and accused him of attempting to shift the blame for the Government’s own failings. They also demanded to know which rules they were being accused of breaking.

Later, a Downing Street source sought to offer clarification, saying: “Throughout this crisis care homes have done a brilliant job under very difficult circumstances.

“The PM was pointing out that nobody knew what the correct procedures were because the extent of asymptomatic transmission was not known at the time.”

Care homes recorded almost 20,000 Covid deaths, with much criticism of policies that saw patients discharged from hospitals into the homes at a time when there was no routine testing.

This followed advice from Public Health England, which in February said it was “very unlikely people receiving care in a care home will become infected”.

As the crisis grew, care homes struggled to get hold of PPE, with testing for residents only introduced after it had been rolled out in hospitals.

It was not until May – five weeks after ministers were warned of the risks of allowing staff to work in multiple homes – that the Government issued advice that care homes should not allow such practices.

But yesterday the Prime Minister said too many care homes had not followed the procedures they should have been following.

During a visit to Goole, he said: “One of the things the crisis has shown is we need to think about how we organise our social care package better and how we make sure we look after people better who are in social care. We discovered too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way they could have, but we’re learning lessons the whole time. Most important is to fund them properly… but we will also be looking at ways to make sure the care sector long term is properly organised and supported.”

Martin Green, chief executive of Care England, representing independent social care services, said Mr Johnson was trying to deflect from his administration’s failings.

He said: “The Government’s policies were really bad. The priority was all about the NHS, when care homes were most at risk. We had people being discharged from hospital without testing.

“It was only when we raised the alarm with figures showing how many residents were infected that the Prime Minister seemed to take any note at all. He really hasn’t bathed himself in glory and it seems outrageous to now try to throw the blame on homes.”

Prof Green said care homes had “put themselves into lockdown” in the absence of advice from Government.

Amid desperate shortages of PPE, care homes belatedly received “everchanging” guidance, some of which altered

‘He really hasn’t bathed himself in glory and it seems outrageous to now try to throw the blame on homes’

six times in two days, he said. “Then we had large numbers of staff self isolating, based on Government advice. That meant using more agency staff. It wasn’t until much later that advice changed on that.

“I’d like to sit down with the Prime Minister and ask him to tell me what advice it is we didn’t follow.”

Vic Rayner, executive director of the National Care Forum, said Mr Johnson’s comments were “neither accurate nor welcome”.

Mike Padgham, of the Independent Care Group, said providers did “their absolute best in the face of slow and conflicting advice”. He said care providers had “worked miracles” considering the lack of Government support.

Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, said underfunded care homes had been left to “fend for themselves”.