The Government's care home policy in England at the start of the pandemic was illegal, a court has found. Two grieving daughters whose fathers died from Covid-19 have won a High Court challenge against the Government over its handling of patients who were discharged from hospital to care homes at the start of the pandemic.
Cathy Gardner, whose father Michael Gibson died in Oxfordshire on April 3 2020, and Fay Harris, whose father Donald in Hampshire on May 1 2020, partially succeeded in their claims against the Health Secretary and Public Health England. The outcome undermines claims from the Department of Health that they had thrown a 'protective ring' around vulnerable residents.
In Greater Manchester, by May 2020, around half of care homes in Greater Manchester had suffered outbreaks, with more than 4,000 coronavirus-related deaths up to that point, according to the Care Quality Commission. The resulting devastation came amid heartbreaking testimonies from care home staff who told of lack of testing, PPE, of agency staff moving between homes and, crucially, of patients being moved from hospitals into care homes without testing. Manchester City Council have said they had a policy throughout to test all such patients before they were moved into care.
