‘Unlawful’ care home Covid patient policy is slammed

THE Government’s ‘unlawful’ policies on discharging patients into care homes at the start of the pandemic have been condemned by a county councillor.

A ruling from the High Court said the Government’s own policies were ‘unlawful’ on discharging untested hospital patients into care homes until mid April 2020.

Labour County Coun John Fillis said: “The way these vulnerable people were treated was disgraceful.” Government advice until April 15, 2020 was Covid-positive hospital patients did not need a negative test before being discharged into a care home. Despite a change in policy a month into the pandemic, there were 279 care home deaths in Lancashire where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate up until July 11, 2020, according to Office for National Statistics data.

A Government spokesperson said: “Throughout the pandemic, our aim has been to protect the public from the threat to life and health posed by Covid-19 and we specifically sought to safeguard care home residents based on the best information at the time. This was a wide ranging claim and the vast majority of the judgement found in the government’s favour. The court recognised this was a very difficult decision at the start of the pandemic; evidence on asymptomatic transmission was extremely uncertain and we had to act immediately to protect the NHS to prevent it from being overwhelmed. The court recognised we did all we could to increase testing capacity. We acknowledge the judge’s comments on assessing the risks of asymptomatic transmission and our guidance on isolation and will respond in more detail in due course.”

East Lancashire Hospitals referred our sister publication Lancs Live to NHS England, indicating it was a matter of Government policy.