The Prime Minister has caused a storm of protest by claiming that care homes didn’t follow the correct procedures.
Fazilet Hadi, DR UK Head of Policy said: "These comments are at best ill-judged and at worst an attempt to shift blame. For those vital early weeks in late March and early April, care homes were left without PPE, testing and NHS support. On top of these failings, people with COVID were actually transferred from hospitals to care homes without any testing, thereby bringing infection into care homes with high risk residents. It wasn’t until 15 April that the government published its Social Care Plan and by this time the damage was done. There was certainly no “ring of protection” as claimed by Matt Hancock, instead care homes and their staff and residents were abandoned."