UK Covid Inquiry Faults Care-Home Protection After 43,000 Deaths

3 articles · Updated · bbc.co.uk · Oct 20

A 287-page Covid inquiry report said protection for UK care settings came too late, leaving about 500,000 care-home residents exposed and contributing to more than 43,000 recorded Covid deaths in care homes from March 2020 to July 2022.
The inquiry said the promised “protective ring” did not exist: PPE shortages forced makeshift gear, and hospital patients were discharged into care homes without enough testing or isolation guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Long-standing weaknesses worsened the damage, with staff vacancies, reliance on agency workers, zero-hours contracts, weak sick-pay support and a fragmented provider system undermining the sector’s ability to respond.
By September 2020, evidence suggested visitors posed only a marginal infection risk, yet many homes kept severe visiting limits that the inquiry said harmed residents’ health and wellbeing.
The report also highlighted unlawful blanket DNACPR concerns—orders rose from 16,800 to 26,500 in the pandemic’s first nine months—and described deep distress among staff who watched large numbers of residents die.