UK Covid Inquiry Finds Care Home Deaths Preventable

Vulnerable care home residents were treated as an "afterthought" and sacrificed to "protect the NHS" during the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to more than 43,000 deaths, a damning inquiry has found.

Inquiry chair Baroness Heather Hallett stated that claims by then health secretary Matt Hancock that ministers had thrown a "protective ring" around care homes "care homes right from the start" were untrue. Instead, the virus spread "like wildfire" due to a lack of adequate protections, insufficient testing, and care workers lacking personal protective equipment (PPE).

Around 25,000 patients were discharged from hospitals into care homes between March 17 and April 15, 2020, in an effort to free up hospital beds. These patients were often discharged without adequate testing for the virus, contributing to its rapid spread within facilities that were unable to properly isolate new arrivals.

The report highlighted that care home residents were left feeling "isolated, abandoned and alone" as visiting restrictions cut them off from loved ones, sometimes for months. This isolation caused "enormous harm" and led to a "significant decline" in the health and well-being of residents, particularly those with dementia, with some being unable to be with dying friends or relatives in their final moments.

Baroness Hallett concluded that the failures stemmed from a lack of proper pre-pandemic planning. A 2016 pandemic preparedness exercise, codenamed Exercise Cygnus, had identified a need for more surge capacity in care homes, but this work had not been completed by the time the outbreak occurred. The report noted that had this been done, it may have "helped ensure the safe isolation of all people admitted to care homes."

"The adult social care sector as a whole appeared to be something of an afterthought, where the mantra of 'protecting the NHS' sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care," Hallett stated. "The failures set out in this Report created environments in care settings in which the virus could spread like wildfire."

The inquiry also examined concerns about the use of Do Not Attempt Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (DNACPR) decisions, finding that some were made inappropriately or without proper consultation, sometimes due to health and social care workers lacking the skills for end-of-life conversations.

Care workers were found to have put their own lives at risk, with some experiencing burnout or leaving the profession. The failure to provide them with adequate PPE was described as "wholly unacceptable," and the report emphasized that the role of the care sector has been "undervalued and under-recognised for too long."

The UK Covid-19 Inquiry, established in June 2022 and costing over £200 million, is expected to publish its final report in the summer of 2027. The report on the care sector is the sixth of ten modules.

Key recommendations from this module include better planning for the safe isolation of care home residents, financial support for staff to self-isolate if infected, new guidelines on visiting restrictions, and mandatory end-of-life training for health and social care workers. "It underlines why my recommendations in this report must be acted upon now before the next pandemic strikes," Hallett urged.