The Health Secretary Matt Hancock has rejected accusations that the Government’s policies prioritised hospitals over aged care homes in the fight against COVID-19.
An investigation by Reuters has found policies designed to prevent hospitals from being overwhelmed left the country’s aged care homes struggling to access testing and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE).
The Health Secretary said the Government had put a “huge amount of effort and resources behind supporting care homes”, but acknowledged that wider testing earlier in the outbreak would have been beneficial.
On Wednesday, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Parliament that he “bitterly” regretted the “epidemic” in aged care homes, but said the situation was improving.
“If we look at the figures in the last few days there has been a palpable improvement. We must hope that that continues and we will ensure that it does continue.”
But the UK overtook Italy this week to report the highest official death toll from COVID-19 in Europe – while the number of deaths in aged care homes also continues to climb.
In the week to 5 May 2020, homes reported of total of 4,868 deaths to the Care Quality Commission (CQC) – 2,044 linked to COVID-19.
