High Court hearing on government's 'failure' to protect care homes from Covid adjourned till 2022

A landmark legal action against the government, Public Health England and NHS England by Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris, whose fathers died of Covid-19 in care homes during the pandemic, has been adjourned till next year.

The case was due to take place over four days from 19 October but the High Court said there was much more information that they had to consider than time allowed.

Dr Gardner said: “Although the previous judge ruled that the case could be heard in four days, the judges hearing the case this week decided that, because of the importance of the case and the volume of material, a longer hearing would be needed.

"This is likely to be early next year. Whilst the delay is frustrating, a longer trial will give us more opportunity to expose the detail of the government’s failings to the Court. A longer hearing will ultimately help justice to be done."

The pair launched their case on 12 June 2020 “for the many failures to protect care home residents”.

Dr Gardner, who has raised over £137,000 in crowdfunding to pay for the legal action, said: “It has been a long and hard road to get to this point. The government have resisted us at every turn and sought to conceal key documents that explained what advice they had been given and why they decided what they did."

Dr Gardner launched the legal action after her father Michael Gibson, 88, a retired registrar died at Cherwood House Care Centre in Oxfordshire on 3 April 2020.

In July 2020, Ms Harris joined the legal battle for justice after her father Don Harris who was a resident at Marlfield care home in Alton, Hampshire died of coronavirus on 1 May just days before she had planned a sailing trip in Portsmouth to celebrate his 90th birthday.

The test case argues that the government failed to protect care home residents from the three principal routes of transmission of Covid: infection by other residents, by external visitors to care homes, and by care home staff.

Dr Gardner who has a PhD in virology, said: “It is very clear, whatever Matt Hancock may have said, the residents of care homes were not provided with a protective ring.

"He knew they were the most at risk and yet he issued a policy that exposed them to the risk of losing their lives. Many did. My father did.”

According to the Office for National Statistics, between March and June 2020, more than 20,000 elderly and/or disabled care home residents in England and Wales, including the fathers of both of the claimants, died from Covid-19.

Ms Harris said that she does not want anyone else to go through what they went through as a family and says she feels “terrible guilt” and due to the government’s policy of transferring Covid patients from hospital to care homes she said “I feel as though he was locked in to die”.

In his introductory argument for the hearing, Jason Coppel QC said: "The government’s failure to protect it, and positive steps taken by the government which introduced Covid-19 infection into care homes, represent one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era.’

"This claim is a legal challenge to the government’s failure to protect care home residents and to the key policies and decisions which led to the shocking death toll. The most notorious of these policies is that of mass discharge of around 25,000 elderly and/or disabled patients from NHS hospitals into care homes – including the homes of the Claimants’ fathers – without Covid-19 testing or ensuring that suitable isolation arrangements were in place.

"That policy has been described by the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee as 'reckless and negligent' and 'appalling'."