Heat on Hancock as judges rule sending Covid patients to care homes was unlawful

THE daughters of two men who died following Covid outbreaks in their care homes won a landmark legal action against the Government yesterday.

Two High Court judges ruled that policies on discharging hospital patients to care homes without Covid testing were unlawful, because they failed to take into account the risk to residents of catching the virus from non-symptomatic patients.

The bereaved families said the High Court ruling exposed ministers’ claims to have protected care home residents as a ‘despicable lie’.

More than 20,000 elderly and vulnerable residents died from Covid in the first wave of the pandemic in Britain, and legal experts said yesterday’s ruling could allow families to sue the Government for compensation.

The judges said it was ‘irrational’ that the Government had not advised that discharged patients should be isolated from other residents for 14 days.

Cathy Gardner, who had to say her final goodbye to her 88-year-old father through a window, was one of the two women who brought the legal action against the then health secretary Matt Hancock.

She said her father Michael Gibson and other care home residents were ‘neglected and let down by the Government’ and called on Mr Hancock to apologise.

‘Nothing more than a despicable lie’

She said: ‘[His] claim that the Government threw a protective ring around care homes in the first wave of the pandemic was nothing more than a despicable lie.’

Dr Gardner, a virologist, and Fay Harris, whose father Donald Harris died after an outbreak in his care home, raised more than £140,000 to bring the case. Their lawyers said the Government’s failure to protect care home residents was ‘one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era’.

Two judges reviewed policies from the Department of Health and Social Care and Public Health England from March and April 2020 and ruled that patients had been discharged from hospitals to care homes unlawfully.

Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham said there had been ‘growing awareness’ of the risk that non-symptomatic patients could transmit the virus.

There was no evidence Mr Hancock or his advisers had addressed that risk, they ruled. The judges said: ‘The growing appreciation that asymptomatic transmission was a real possibility ought to have prompted a change in Government policy earlier than it did.’

They upheld the women’s complaint against Mr Hancock and PHE, but acknowledged he and his colleagues were under pressure to stop the NHS from being overwhelmed, and that widespread Covid testing was not available at the time. The judges rejected a complaint from the two women against NHS England, and dismissed complaints brought under human rights legislation.

Lawyer Adam Wagner said the ruling could allow bereaved families to sue the Government. But he warned it could be difficult to prove residents were infected by discharged hospital patients, rather than by other visitors or staff. Barrister Alex Bailin QC said there was ‘a real possibility’ that the health department could face accusations of corporate manslaughter.

The Prime Minister’s spokesman said: ‘We sought to act informed by the evidence that we had, clinical or otherwise, and the capabilities we had available at the time.’ A spokesman for Mr Hancock said PHE had failed to tell ministers about the growing evidence of asymptomatic transmission.

it didn’t take a crystal ball to predict a tragedy. in early April 2020, as coronavirus terrifyingly swept the country, this column warned: ‘if we don’t wake up, many of our care homes will become houses of death.’

And so it came to pass. Some 20,000 elderly and vulnerable residents lost their lives in the first wave – many spending their final hours confused and alone.

Yesterday, in a scathing High court ruling, judges pinned the blame on then health secretary Matt Hancock and the hapless (and now-defunct) Public Health england.

they acted unlawfully by allowing NHS hospitals to discharge untested patients into nursing homes, despite the risk of asymptomatic transmission, which triggered fatal outbreaks. the reason? the health establishment had a monomaniacal focus on propping up the NHS.

As our elderly move into their declining years, society owes them a moral obligation.

Mr Hancock boasted of throwing a ‘protective ring’ around care homes. in fact, he threw their residents to the wolves.