Pressure on PM over care homes handling

BORIS JOHNSON is facing renewed questions over his efforts to protect vulnerable care home residents from coronavirus after Labour used a new report to claim the sector was an ‘afterthought’ in the outbreak.

Whitehall’s spending watchdog confirmed yesterday that 25,000 hospital patients were discharged into care homes in England at the height of the pandemic without all being tested for Covid-19.

And the National Audit Office added that the central stockpile of personal protective equipment lacked items such as gowns and visors, despite an independent committee recommending their inclusion last year.

Conservative former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt joined Labour MPs in criticising the Government, saying it was “extraordinary

that no one appeared to consider the clinical risk to care homes”.

The report was published after the head of the NHS Test and Trace programme key to preventing a second wave of infections while easing the lockdown admitted it is not yet “gold standard”. Baroness Harding insisted it was “fit for purpose” after figures showed a third of people who tested positive could not be reached by officials.

A DHSC spokesman said the department has been “working tirelessly” to reduce transmission in care homes. “Since the launch of whole care home testing, the Government has provided over one million test kits to almost 9,000 care homes and on Monday we announced that every care home in England will now be offered a coronavirus test for all residents and staff, even if they have no symptoms,” he added.