Care home residents received insufficient protection during COVID-19 pandemic, inquiry report finds

The UK COVID-19 Inquiry has found that vulnerable care home residents were left with “insufficient protection” as patients were discharged from hospitals without knowing if they had the virus. 

More than 43,000 care home deaths involving COVID-19 were recorded between March 2020 and July 2022 – accounting for more than one in five of all COVID-19 deaths in the UK in that period.  

The government’s mantra of protecting the NHS and its hospitals’ ability to treat patients “sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care”, the report found. 

The report also said care homes became prisons amid visiting bans with many residents left feeling “abandoned”.

Inquiry chairwoman, Baroness Heather Hallett, said the pandemic had “a devastating impact” on carers and those they cared for. 

She said efforts to protect these groups “came too late”, with failures as a direct consequence of “an absence of proper pandemic planning for the adult social care sector”.

Her report said the “failures” set out in her findings “created environments in care settings in which the virus could spread like wildfire”. 

Responding to the publication of the report today, Dr Carole Easton OBE, Chief Executive at the Centre for Ageing Better, said:  

“The inquiry was told about an unforgiveable ‘generational slaughter within care homes’ and how more than 40,000 COVID-19 deaths in care homes in little over two years felt like a ‘cull of older people who could no longer contribute to the society’. 

“We need lessons to be learned from this terrible tragedy and this important report. And not just lessons learned about preparedness for future pandemics, but about the failure to properly value the lives of older people amongst the care and healthcare sectors, and from government itself.

“There is a wealth of evidence that points to poorer treatment, or limited options for treatment, given to older people because of assumptions about their age, or the number of years they have left to live. Your date of birth should not impact the quality of healthcare you receive.  

“To ensure that the importance of older people’s health and wellbeing is not minimised and ignored in this way again, and to give confidence to future generations that they will be valued as they age, we need a Commissioner for Older People and Ageing. Such a role would ensure that policymakers, and vital sectors and services within society consider the needs of England’s ageing population and root out ageist assumptions and practices.  

“During the panic induced by the unprecedented outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, no one at the heart of government was advocating for the rights of older people and helping to give a voice to them and their families when they needed it the most. As Baroness Hallet’s report makes clear, the consequences were dire, deadly and disastrous. It cannot be allowed to happen again.”