More evidence for the unloading of elderly people from hospital into care homes has come to light.
Replying to ITV News, NHS commissioning groups and councils in 17 English regions said they had reserved 1,800 beds in care homes. Until mid- April patients were not tested for coronavirus as a matter of routine. As a result the coronavirus spread rapidly through care homes.
The Johnson government’s advice to hospitals before April 15th was that “negative tests are not required prior to transfers/admissions into the care home.”
In spite of the phenomenal number of deaths from COVID-19 in care homes, some care homes are continuing to take in patients who have tested positive. At a care home in Scarborough, a care home is currently housing six patients who have tested positive. This and other care homes are under pressure to accept patients from hospitals.
The Health Secretary Matt Hancock has not denied that the Johnson government had a plan to discharge patients into care homes. It becomes clearer that this was a deliberate plan by the government. The Scottish government has already admitted that more than 900 patients were discharged into care homes before mandatory testing took place.
As a result of these policies, at least 16,000 residents of care homes have died.
Despite officials at Public Health England (PHE) calling for a lockdown of care homes on April 28th, which would have saved many lives, the government refused to implement this.
As we pointed out in a previous article on this website about the large number of deaths in care homes, the virus was spread by patients being discharged from hospitals into care homes, by care home workers being allowed to move from home to home, as well as building layouts where socialising rather than isolating was encouraged.
The PHE plan was that staff should “live-in” in homes over a four week period. The government turned this down, saying that only care home workers “who proactively choose it should be offered accommodation on site or in hotels” and that care home operators should help staff “minimise risk of picking up Covid-19 outside of work.” Similarly, PHE’s recommendation to “use NHS facilities and other temporary accommodation to quarantine and isolate residents before returning to their care home” was also turned down.
In fact, the virus was confirmed to have been spread in care homes by temporary staff moving from home to home, in a PHE study that came out only last week.
Similarly, another point in the suggested PHE plan was rejected, which was to “stop staff from Covid-19 positive homes being rotated to those who are Covid-19 free.” As we said previously, the Johnson government is culpable in the slaughter of thousands in care homes. They must be held responsible.