The High Court’s ruling that Government policies on discharging hospital patients into care homes were “unlawful” has “rubbed more salt in the wound” for families, a bereaved daughter has said.
Jean Adamson, whose father Aldrick died in a care home in April 2020, praised the “landmark” decision but added that relatives would not have justice until ministers were held accountable for their decisions.
“It brings renewed hope for justice for us families, but it’s also devastating – devastating because so many of us lost our loved ones in care homes needlessly,” she said.
Irrational
The Government failed to consider the risk to vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission in the early months of the pandemic, High Court judges said, adding that it was “irrational” for the Government not to have advised that asymptomatic patients should isolate from existing residents upon admission.
By not requiring the transferred hospital patients to test negative for Covid, the High Court ruled, the Government failed to consider the risk to vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission in the early months of the pandemic.
At the time, the Department for Health and Social Care claimed it had thrown a “protective ring” around care homes, which Ms Adamson labelled “absolute rubbish”.
But did the government know?
Well this clip from Chris Whity on 5th March 2020 indicates that: “there’s a large iceberg of people who have asymptomatic infection… “
Watch
And here is Matt Hancock telling a reporter that: “We ministers were not told about the asymptomatic transmission.”
Related: Watch: PM’s care homes defence he ‘didn’t know covid could be transmitted asymptomatically’ blown apart by this footage