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UK COVID Inquiry: 'Afterthought' Care Sector Fails
20 Oct
Summary
- Action to protect care settings came too late, causing devastating consequences.
- Lack of PPE led to staff using makeshift protective gear like bin bags.
- Inquiry found evidence of unlawful blanket 'do not resuscitate' orders.
The sixth report from the Covid inquiry has sharply criticized the UK government's actions to protect individuals in care settings during the pandemic. The inquiry found that crucial measures were delayed, resulting in devastating outcomes for the approximately 500,000 people residing in care homes and the million receiving home care.
Failures included a significant lack of personal protective equipment (PPE), forcing staff to use improvised items like bin bags. Furthermore, the report highlighted the problematic transfer of hospital patients into care homes without adequate testing, increasing infection risks. The inquiry also noted that the care sector's inherent fragility, due to high staff vacancies and reliance on agency workers, hampered its pandemic response.
The inquiry detailed how visitation bans, initially rational, were maintained too restrictively even as evidence suggested minimal risk from visitors by September 2020. This impacted residents' well-being. Alarmingly, the report cited evidence of GPs imposing unlawful blanket 'do not resuscitate' (DNACPR) orders on care home residents, with a sharp increase observed during the pandemic's initial months. The mental health toll on care staff was also immense, with many facing extreme distress and providing end-of-life care to multiple residents simultaneously.
