A campaigner whose mum died in a care home during Covid has hit out again at Matt Hancock – saying the former Health Minister’s latest evidence to the Covid-19 public inquiry showed his “true colours”. Deborah Doyle’s mum Sylvia Griffiths died in a Sunderland care home in April 2020.
Since then, Deborah has been fighting to ensure there is full accountability for how the pandemic – and especially how looking after those in care homes was managed. Speaking to ChronicleLive a day after Mr Hancock returned to the Covid-19 inquiry to answer questions about the care sector, Deborah said his “belligerent” attitude had been upsetting.
Mr Hancock had been quizzed about a frequently-quoted phrase used in a Downing Street press conference on May 15, 2020. He said then: “Right from the start, we’ve tried to throw a protective ring around our care homes.”
Citing the scale of death in care homes due to Covid-19, the lack of adequate support in terms of personal protective equipment (PPE) given to them and the decision – found to be unlawful at the High Court – to discharge asymptomatic people back into care homes from hospital, campaigners have previously called this a “sickening lie”.
On Thursday, Deborah echoed this and told ChronicleLive: “How can we put anything right if we don’t do this properly? It’s not a witchhunt, it’s about trying to make sure we know what went wrong so that when this happens again we can be prepared and better look after people like my mum.
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“When Mr Hancock said there was a ‘protective ring’ around care homes, I thought that was absolutely brilliant. I thought that was the Government looking after the most vulnerable – but it was a downright lie.
“I can remember the nurse ringing me to tell me mum had died and she shouldn’t have. He was in tears, this strong stoic nurse, so for me to see Matt Hancock being as belligerent as he was, well it was sticking two fingers up at us.”
Deborah said it was vital to remember that everyone who died in a care home during Covid-19 had their own story – that they had been during the lives the “lifeblood of our communities”.
During evidence, Mr Hancock denied lying. In a session at the independent probe – headed by Baroness Hallett – the inquiry’s counsel Jacqueline Carey KC shared a comment from someone about the way care homes were supported during the pandemic.
She said: “One person in particular said ‘He (Mr Hancock) blatantly lied about the situation with care homes, there was no blanket of protection. We were left to sail our own ships. He wasn’t heartfelt. He had no understanding or appreciation of the challenges care homes face, pandemic or not, it felt like we were the sacrifice, a cull of older people who could no longer contribute to the society’.”
Mr Hancock said he felt it was “not helpful” for the inquiry to “exchange brickbats” – and he said there had been a “big team effort” with staff in the Department of Health and Social Care “pulling as hard as we possibly could to save lives”. He added: “That’s what I meant by saying that we tried to throw a protective ring around. Of course, it wasn’t perfect. It was impossible – it was an unprecedented pandemic, and the context was exceptionally difficult.
“What I care about is the substance of what we did, the protections that we put in place, and most importantly, what we can do in the future to ensure that the options available are better than they were last time.” The former minister added his emphasis was on “‘tried’ – it was not possible to protect as much as I would have wanted”.
In a tense exchange, he added: “There may be campaign groups and politically-motivated bodies that say other things. What I care about, though, is the substance. And frankly, that’s what this Inquiry should care about after all the millions of pounds that have been spent on it.”
Elsewhere in his evidence, Mr Hancock – who said one of his own relatives died in a care home but did not give further details – acknowledged the policy around discharging patients from hospital into care homes early in the pandemic was an “incredibly contentious issue”.
When the pandemic hit in early 2020, hospital patients were rapidly discharged into care homes in a bid to free up beds and prevent the NHS from becoming overwhelmed. However, there was no policy in place requiring patients to be tested before admission, or for asymptomatic patients to isolate, until mid-April.
This was despite growing awareness of the risks of people without Covid-19 symptoms being able to spread the virus. The High Court ruled in 2022 that government policies on discharging hospital patients into care homes at the start of the pandemic were “unlawful”.
While the judges said it was necessary to discharge patients “to preserve the capacity of the NHS”, they found it was “irrational” for the Government not to have advised that asymptomatic patients should isolate from existing residents for 14 days after admission.
Asked about the policy, Mr Hancock said there were no good options, adding: “It’s the least-worst decision that could have been taken at the time.”
