PM 'should resign' as government broke law discharging untested patients into care homes

The High Court has ruled the government acted unlawfully when it discharged hospital patients into care homes without testing them for Covid, with the grieving daughters who brought the legal action saying the prime minister should resign.

Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris, whose fathers both died from Covid in care homes during the pandemic, took former health secretary Matt Hancock and Public Health England to court over the policy.

They partially succeeded in their claims as the High Court ruling found although there was "growing awareness" of the risk of asymptomatic transmission in March 2020, there was nothing to show the then health secretary Matt Hancock looked at the risk to care home residents.

Claims against NHS England and human rights legislation were rejected.

In the wake of the ruling, Dr Gardner said: "The High Court has now vindicated that belief, and our campaign to expose the truth.”

Care homes were told on 2 April 2020 to accept Covid patients discharged from hospital, with an estimated 25,000 untested people discharged from hospitals into care homes at the height of the pandemic.

During this same period, from March to June 2020, over 20,000 care home residents died from Covid in England and Wales.

At a Downing Street briefing in May 2020 broadcast live on TV, Mr Hancock told the public: “So right from the start we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.”

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

'Despicable lie'

Dr Gardner called Matt Hancock’s claim a “despicable lie” saying “it is also now clear that Matt Hancock's claim that the government threw a protective ring around care homes in the first wave of the pandemic was nothing more than a despicable lie of which he ought to be ashamed and for which he ought to apologise."

She added: "We have held the government to account and we hope that the most vulnerable in our society will not be overlooked and ignored in any future health emergency.

"It has been a long and draining journey to bring this case to court. We brought it not only for our families but on behalf of the many families in the country who lost loved ones."

Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris also called on Prime Minister Boris Johnson to resign.

A spokesman for Matt Hancock said the ruling "comprehensively clears ministers of any wrongdoing and finds Mr Hancock acted reasonably on all counts".

He said: "The court also found that Public Health England failed to tell ministers what they knew about asymptomatic transmission.

"Mr Hancock has frequently stated how he wished this had been brought to his attention earlier."

A spokesperson for carehome.co.uk, the leading reviews site for care homes, said: “The High Court ruling just confirms to care homes as well as residents and their families that the government let them down in the most tragic way possible.

“For former health secretary Matt Hancock to say care homes were being kept safe by a ‘protective ring’ was a joke.

"Care homes were told to take hospital patients not knowing whether they had Covid, and with many care home staff not given access to PPE, their lives as well as those of residents were sadly put in jeopardy.”

No sign of a 'protective ring' around care

Neil Russell, chair of PJ Care, which runs three care homes, welcomed the ruling, saying: "We are not surprised by this judgement. PJ Care, like most care providers, has suffered from inappropriate discharges from hospitals and these, combined with other actions taken by the government, such as diverting PPE supplies away from care homes, made the impact of this horrible virus worse than it needed to be.

"We have not seen any sign of a 'protective ring' around care and while PJ Care have been able to manage the virus effectively, this was made more challenging by the government's approach with late changes to guidance and an approach that treated care as secondary to other areas."

He wants social care to be acknowledged for the role it plays in the country's economy and wellbeing, saying if this doesn't happen "bigger problems will follow".

GMB, the union for care workers, called the judgement "a terrible reminder of callous disregard this government has shown for care home residents and workers".