People have died who should not have died

It is vital that as many deaths linked to coronavirus as possible are investigated. Some of these deaths are likely to have been avoidable. There have been cases where patients were removed from hospitals and put into care homes and the questions that arise are what risk assessments were carried out and what steps were taken by the care homes to prevent infection in residents and workers.

People are developing and suffering disease and dying. We have to understand how people were exposed, what happened to those people while they were being treated in hospitals or care homes and how many people they were coming into contact with and infecting.

There is a basic rule in health and safety law, and it’s universally agreed and understood, that personal protective equipment is the very last line of defence. It’s not the first thing you go to. The primary duty in law on employers – hospitals, care homes – is to avoid all exposure. That’s the default position. You do not expose anybody to the risk of harm.

It beggars belief that NHS workers treating people suffering from Covid-19 were not being routinely tested to see if they were developing Covid-19.

We’ve known since early March there is a significant number of asymptomatic Covid-19 cases. So, if you’re only testing people showing symptoms you know there are people who don’t have symptoms who have Covid-19 and may very well be infecting other people.

As far as any criminal prosecution is concerned, it will have to be decided whether or not there is any breach of the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974. It’s important that enquiries are made because it will be the gateway for any criminal charges the Crown Office might bring and certainly for any claim for civil compensation.

People have been dying who should not have been dying. If employers know that they have exposed people to a potentially fatal virus and they have taken no steps to prevent that then a full criminal prosecution should be brought against them.

In addition to any criminal prosecutions brought against employers, everybody who has been infected at work or as a resident in a care home has a claim for civil compensation because someone has been negligent in exposing to them to the risk of harm.