UK nursing home policy on COVID-19 deemed ‘unlawful’ by High Court

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“My father and other residents of care homes were neglected and let down by the government,” plaintiff Cathy Gardner said, per the Associated Press. “Matt Hancock’s claim that the government threw a protective ring round care homes in the first wave of the pandemic was nothing more than a despicable lie of which he ought to be ashamed and for which he ought to apologize.”

Hancock was the health secretary at the time and has defended the government’s actions. The case was brought by Gardner and Fay Harris, whose fathers, Michael Gibson and Donald Harris, died in a nursing home in 2020 after getting infected with COVID-19, Sky News reported.

“This court case comprehensively clears Ministers of any wrongdoing and finds Mr. Hancock acted reasonably on all counts,” a spokesperson for Hancock said, according to ITV reporter Paul Brand. “Hancock has frequently stated how he wished this had been brought to his attention earlier. Mr. Hancock’s thoughts are with everyone who lost loved ones, and we must ensure that all the right lessons are learned.”

While the court sided with the plaintiffs that the British government broke the law, the judge rejected some of the plaintiff’s claims that referenced human rights legislation, per the BBC. The ruling bolsters the odds of the government facing compensation claims from individuals affected by the policy, according to the Guardian.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson addressed the ruling in an appearance before the House of Commons on Wednesday.

“The thing we didn’t know in particular was that COVID could be transmitted asymptomatically in the way that it was, and that was something that I wish we had known more about at the time,” Johnson said.

But the two judges insisted the government knew asymptomatic transmission of COVID-19 was a possibility. The government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies said “asymptomatic transmission cannot be ruled out” in February 2020. Yet, there are no documents indicating hospital patients were required to be tested for the virus before being transferred to nursing home facilities until April 2020, Sky News reported.

The United Kingdom, similar to nursing homes in New York, experienced an explosion of COVID-19 cases at the very beginning of the pandemic, leading to thousands of deaths. Roughly 20,000 people died in British nursing homes during the early pandemic days, per the Associated Press. Both governments have since been blamed for some of those deaths because they did not require hospital patients to be tested before being transferred to nursing homes.

At the time, COVID-19 test kits were in short supply, but authorities did have the option to isolate patients before transferring them.

“The government’s failure to protect it, and positive steps taken by the government which introduced COVID-19 infection into care homes, represent one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era,” Jason Coppel, a barrister representing the plaintiffs, told the court.

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Lawyers for the National Health Service argued officials worked “tirelessly” to minimize the threat posed by the virus.

“Every death is a tragedy, and we worked tirelessly to protect the public from the threat to life and health posed by the pandemic and specifically sought to safeguard care homes and their residents,” Eleanor Grey, who represented the NHS, said, per the outlet. “We have provided billions of pounds to support the sector, including on infection and prevention control, free PPE, and priority vaccinations — with the vast majority of eligible care staff and residents now vaccinated.”