The virus spread \u2018like wildfire\u2019 among the elderly because of government failures, a public investigation has found<\/p>\n
The UK government\u2019s negligent approach towards care homes at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to high disease and death rates among the elderly, a public inquiry into the nation\u2019s response to the disease outbreak has concluded.
\nMore than 43,000 people died from Covid-19 in care homes throughout the UK between March 2020 and July 2022, with most of them registered during the first year of the pandemic, according to the data presented in the inquiry report published on Tuesday. That amounts to just under 10% of the total care homes population between 2022 and 2023.
\nAn earlier report published by the British parliament put the death toll between March 2020 and April 2021 at over 41,000, adding that it amounted to nearly a quarter of deaths from all causes among care home residents as well as more than a quarter of all Covid-19 deaths in England over that period. The report named the rate one of \u201cthe worst in Europe,\u201d adding that the loss of life could have been mitigated.<\/p>\n
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The care homes were \u201can afterthought\u201d for the government focused on preserving the National Health Service (NHS) during the pandemic, said former judge Baroness Heather Hallett, who is leading the inquiry. She blamed the development on the government\u2019s initial failure to advise testing Covid-19 patients discharged from hospitals before their return to care homes and isolating them once they were back.
\n\u201cThe mantra of \u2018protecting the NHS\u2019 sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care,\u201d she stated. \u201cThese failures created environments in care settings in which the virus could spread like wildfire.\u201d
\nIn March and April 2020, some 25,000 hospital patients were discharged into care comes in England alone to free up beds before mandatory testing was introduced in mid-April 2020. The practice was later recognized as unlawful by the British high court. The investigation head defended the practice by calling it the \u201cleast worst decision to a terrible problem\u201d but still maintained that a lack of isolation advice was a \u201csignificant omission\u201d on the government\u2019s part.<\/p>\n
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Hallett also disputed a claim by then Health Secretary Matt Hancock that he had thrown a \u201cprotective ring\u201d around care homes from the start of the pandemic by calling it \u201cunfounded.\u201d She also criticized the lack of personal protective equipment for the care home staff she branded \u201cwholly unacceptable.\u201d
\nThe report is the sixth out of ten to be published by the inquiry costing more than \u00a3200 million ($267.77 million). In July, another report by Hallett and her team concluded that the UK had wasted billions of pounds of taxpayers\u2019 money during the pandemic. The country entered the pandemic with its PPE stockpile \u201cin a perilous state,\u201d including large quantities of expired equipment, while emergency procurement and distribution plans had never been properly tested, it said at the time.
\nEarlier reports by the inquiry found that authorities across the UK did \u201ctoo little, too late\u201d during the pandemic and that delays in introducing restrictions contributed to thousands of additional deaths.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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