‘Sickening’ Bereaved lawyer calls for police investigation
Sheila Lamb, 94, died with Covid at a care home in Harrow, northwest London, on April 2, 2020 before tests were carried out.
Her grandson Amos Waldman, 43, a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers, said it was “really harrowing” watching the former civil servant, Grade 8 pianist and Trinity College scholarshipwinning ballerina decline within a month of arriving at the home.
“There’s a good chance she would still be alive today,” he said. “We always thought she would live until 100 because, just mentally, she was so razor sharp and emotionally perceptive.”
He said the revelations in The Lockdown Files were “sickening really and it just stirs up all those raw emotions that we still have when we think about that time”.
The family were neither allowed to visit nor video-call Mrs Lamb in the home, and after her death were forced to have a funeral and memorial service on Zoom.
“Not just the testing, but not isolating people when they were ill and the use of agency staff also massively contributed,” Mr Waldman said.
“To think that the lack of testing in care homes was in part due to what sounds like a vanity project to reach 100,000 tests a day is unforgivable and potentially criminal.
“This ought to be strongly investigated properly by the police as well as being considered in the public inquiry.”