A care boss has spoken about the "catastrophic consequences" of patients in Wales being discharged into homes without a Covid test - as UK Government's approach was ruled "unlawful".
Today the High Court ruled that UK Government policies on discharging untested patients from hospital to care homes in England at the start of the Covid pandemic were unlawful.
Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham found the decisions of the then health secretary Matt Hancock to make and maintain a series of policies contained in documents issued in March and April 2020 were unlawful because the drafters of those documents failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission.
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In England the Government moved to testing all patients being discharged into care homes from April 15 - weeks after the pandemic started.
The court heard that more than 20,000 elderly or disabled care home residents died from Covid between March and June 2020 in England and Wales.
While the ruling today was only related to UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock and Public Health England, it was another two weeks after April 15 before Welsh Government introduced mandatory testing of all patients being discharged into homes in Wales.
Mario Kreft, the chair of Care Forum Wales and owner the Pendine Park care group, said: “We had not had a global pandemic for 100 years and it is clear that we were ill-prepared, not just here but around the world. It’s clear that some of the judgement calls, although well-intentioned, were based on false assumptions.
“It appeared to the care sector that it was counter-intuitive that people who may well have had Covid were being discharged to places where there was no Covid, sadly in some instances with catastrophic consequences. We were very clear at the time that it didn’t seem like a good idea which is why Care Forum Wales advised its members to go into lockdown three weeks ahead of being told to do so by the government.
“At the time plans were being made for potential a huge losses of life and understandably the governments of the UK and Wales prioritised clearing hospital beds. It’s fair to say that older people may not have been given the consideration they should have been given.
“Because we did not then have a proper testing regime, it was inevitable that infected people were going to spread the virus. Once Covid got into a care home it was virtually impossible to control. The High Court has made a judgement that applies in England and I can’t imagine it would be different anywhere else because similar policies were adopted across the UK.
“There will now be a public inquiry and the important thing now is that we don’t focus on apportioning the blame but that we learn lessons so that this never happens again.”
A Welsh Government spokesperson said: “From early in the pandemic a wide range of support was put in place for residents in care homes, including providing extra nursing staff where necessary, supporting with infection control measures and providing free PPE for all private and public care homes in Wales.
“Since the start of the pandemic, our approach has been guided by the latest available scientific advice to keep people safe, wherever they live. As the international evidence base about coronavirus evolved, we have continued to update our approach to learn lessons for the future, and ensure we continue to do everything we can to keep people in Wales safe.”
Welsh Government has been under pressure from the families of victims and opposition politicians to hold its own public inquiry into the pandemic - alongside a UK-wide probe. But it has so far refused to bow to that pressure.
