The UK Covid-19 Inquiry has concluded that the adult care sector was "an afterthought" during the pandemic, with systemic failings allowing the virus to "spread like wildfire" and causing thousands of deaths, despite assurances of protection. The inquiry's latest report, published on Tuesday, directly challenged the claim made by then-health secretary Matt Hancock in May 2020 that a "protective ring" was thrown around care homes, dismissing it as "rhetoric".
Failings and the Spread of the Virus
The report found that vulnerable care home residents were left with "insufficient protection" as patients were discharged from hospitals without knowing whether they had the virus. It stated that the mantra of protecting the NHS "sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care", with care homes "becoming prisons" for some residents amid visiting bans, leaving many feeling "abandoned".
Inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett said the pandemic had "a devastating impact" on carers and those they cared for, and that efforts to protect these groups "came too late". She attributed the failures to "an absence of proper pandemic planning for the adult social care sector", which created environments "in which the virus could spread like wildfire".
Death Toll and Hancock's Claim
The report recorded more than 43,000 care home deaths involving Covid-19 between March 2020 and July 2022. During inquiry hearings last year, a civil servant described the toll as a "generational slaughter within care homes".
At a Downing Street press conference on May 15, 2020, Mr Hancock, who resigned from government in 2021, said: "Right from the start, we've tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes." Bereaved families have previously called the phrase a "sickening lie" and a "joke". The inquiry report stated that this rhetoric "does not accurately reflect the lack of action taken to protect care homes across the UK in March and the first half of April 2020".
Key Findings and Recommendations
The 287-page report also found that visiting bans "caused incalculable harm to residents", shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) led to workers using festival waterproof ponchos and homemade equipment, and do not attempt cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions made without personalised assessments were branded "unacceptable". It noted that support for approximately 5.8 million unpaid carers "came too late" and that a lack of data on the deaths of at least 1.5 million care workers hindered understanding of the virus's impact.
Lady Hallett made several recommendations, including better pandemic planning, safe and timely isolation of residents following hospital discharge, financial support for staff to self-isolate, and guidance on visiting restrictions based on the "right to in-person visitors". She also called for mandatory end-of-life care training and a voluntary workforce register for adult social care workers. Data published in July showed the public inquiry has cost the Government more than £122 million to respond to so far, on top of the estimated £200 million cost of the inquiry itself.
