Care home questions

Britain’s handling of elderly care at the beginning of the pandemic was a scandal. The more we know, the worse it looks. Today, we report that five weeks before the Government finally issued guidance restricting care workers to working at only one institution, it was warned that staff working in multiple homes could unwittingly spread Covid-19 among the residents. Scientists also recommended quarantining elderly patients in Nightingale-type facilities before sending them back to care homes, but this idea was not taken up nationally.

This all sounds like sensible advice: why wasn’t it acted upon? When the pandemic first broke out, we suspected that it was particularly deadly for the elderly, so common sense ought to have dictated that the Government isolate the most vulnerable straight away – and strictly control access.

But we can also report that an official study conducted in mid-April found that symptomatic staff were self-isolating and being replaced in homes by staff who also worked at other institutions. It’s easy to imagine how asymptomatic workers could then pass the condition on from one place to another.

Questions abound. Why, according to some homes, was it so hard for staff to get personal protective equipment? Why could patients be sent back from hospitals, even when they had received a positive diagnosis? Why was early advice to the care sector so liberal, permitting visitors and saying masks weren’t necessary?

According to the Office for National Statistics, nearly 20,000 people died from Covid-19 in care homes in England and Wales. This suggests a colossal, systemic failure – and the public is due an explanation.