Instead of putting a 'shield around' care homes, government sent in 'people with Covid', says Cummings

Former chief adviser, Dominic Cummings, has blamed Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock for the crisis that enveloped care homes during the pandemic, saying "Hancock told us that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes, what the hell happened?"

Mr Cummings who is giving evidence to a joint session of the Commons Health, and Science and Technology committees, has come out with a series of explosive claims about the way the government reacted during the pandemic.

In May last year, Mr Hancock claimed the government had “tried to throw a protective ring round our care homes”. This was despite the fact that thousands of care home residents had already died of Covid and care homes were told on 2 April to accept Covid-19 patients discharged from hospital.

Care leaders representing care homes, at the time called the guidance, on top of PPE shortages, "a perfect storm" .

Mr Cummings said: “Hancock told us in the Cabinet Room that people were going to be tested before they went back to the care homes. What the hell happened?

“We were told categorically in March that people would be tested before they went back to care homes. We only subsequently found out that hadn’t happened. Now all the government rhetoric was we put a shield around care homes and blah, blah.”

Mr Cummings called Mr Hancock’s claim “complete nonsense” and said: “Quite the opposite of putting a shield round them, we sent people with Covid back to the care homes."

He also said Mr Hancock should "have been fired for at least 15 - 20 things", that included "lying".

Jeremy Hunt, Chairman of the health select committee, called the claims "very serious allegations said under parliamentary privilege" and told Mr Cummings to provide evidence of his claims before Mr Hancock appears in front of MPs in a fortnight.

Shadow social care minister Liz Kendall commented on the claims, saying: "Mr Cummings’ comments have revealed what we knew all along – that the Government’s ‘protective shield’ around care homes during this pandemic did not exist."

Mike Padgham, chair of the Independent Care Group (ICG): added: “Nothing that Mr Cummings has said today comes as a surprise to care providers as it was very clear there was no plan for social care. The sector was ignored and suffered terribly as a result.

“It was like being thrust into a wartime scenario with no clear plan of attack or survival."

• After the government pledged in March to test hospital patients being discharged into care homes, it issued new guidance on 2 April 2020 telling care providers that 'care home staff who come into contact with a Covid-19 patient while not wearing PPE can remain at work’.

The guidance said this is because ‘in most instances this will be a short-lived exposure, unlike exposure in a household setting that is ongoing'.

Figures from the Office for National Statistics say 32,154 people died from Covid-19 in care homes in England and Wales between 28 December 2019 and 14 May 2021.