The UK government's failure to protect elderly people in care homes during the Covid-19 pandemic amounted to "negligence on an almost criminal scale," according to the findings of the public inquiry published last week.
Baroness Hallett, chair of the inquiry, delivered a damning verdict on the assurances made by then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his administration, saying Covid-19 "spread like wildfire" through care homes as elderly residents were treated as "something of an afterthought."
Abandoned in Their Final Days
The inquiry found that elderly people sent to care homes received "insufficient protection at a time when they most needed it" and were left "abandoned and alone" in their final days or weeks. One civil servant involved described the impact as akin to "generational slaughter."
Outside care homes, sobbing relatives were forced to look through windows and watch loved ones wither away, unable to touch or hug them for a final farewell. Inside, often confused elderly people were left heartbroken that relatives would not come to see them as they edged closer to death.
Staff caring for the dying had been denied vital safety equipment in many cases and resorted to wearing bin liners and painters' overalls.
Warnings Ignored Before the Pandemic
The inquiry, which is the sixth of 10 modules, highlighted that the government had been warned about the vulnerability of care homes years earlier. In 2016, then health secretary Jeremy Hunt oversaw Operation Cygnus, a simulated pandemic exercise involving nearly 1,000 officials from 13 government departments across England and Wales. The three-day exercise modelled up to 400,000 excess deaths, and Covid-19 later accounted for 232,000 excess deaths.
Despite the concerns raised, 25,000 patients were discharged from hospital and sent to care homes without Covid tests and were not isolated upon arrival. In total, there were 43,000 deaths in the social care system.
Then health secretary Matt Hancock had claimed to put a "protective ring" around the care sector, a claim the inquiry's findings contradict.
Lessons for the Future
The inquiry, which has cost £200 million, is expected to set out what needs to be learned from the events six and a half years ago. Health experts have warned that it is a case of "when, not if" another pandemic will occur.
