Content overview: “Covid-19 care home deaths: UK inquiry finds residents were an 'afterthought'”. The UK Covid-19 inquiry has delivered a scathing verdict on the government's handling of care homes during the pandemic, confirming that the promised 'protective ring' around residents never existed. The report found that care home residents and staff were 'something of an afterthought' in the early stages of lockdown, leaving vulnerable people exposed. Between March 2020 and July 2022, around 43,000 care home residents in the UK died with Covid-19 listed on their death certificate.
A key failure was the discharge of about 30,000 hospital patients into care homes to free up beds, many without being tested for the virus. In England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, there was no instruction to isolate new arrivals until late April 2020, allowing the virus to spread. This listing links straight to the original page, where the content is available in full.