The Conservative UK Government broke the law by failing care home residents who died of coronavirus, High Court rules | UK News

32 comments

  1. And nothing will be done.

    The Tories have broken the law at least twice, and there has been no consequence. Voters just don’t give a shit anymore.
    Perhaps the energy crises will kick em up the backside, and into the voting booths.

  2. Fully expecting them to order an inquiry, that will take years to come to any conclusion, if it happens at all. If the Tories are still in power then, they will ignore any recommendations. In the meantime, “it was 2 years ago, we have Ukraine to focus on, we are moving on”

  3. > The government broke the law by failing to protect more than 20,000 elderly or disabled care home residents who died after contracting COVID-19, the High Court has ruled.

    This would be the same government that lied about putting a “[protective ring](https://www.ft.com/content/6afb06d6-abd6-4281-ac16-74f500f096d0)” around care homes.

    And this would be the same government that was having garden parties while those care home residents were dying.

  4. My granddad caught Covid in hospital after going in for something unrelated. He recovered, but it shows that hospitals are not generally somewhere you want to be for longer than necessary.

  6. They were warned but chose to do something reckless because it could be spun to it look like they were doing something to protect people. Most of what the Tories did during the pandemic, especially in the early stages, was done for PR purposes and not because it was advised by those with experience in healthcare.

  7. If russian oligarchs can be sanctioned for supporting a civilian killing government like Putin’s, Can we sanction rich Tory twatts for the willful neglect of the elderly in care homes during covid?

  8. [*R (Gardner) v Secretary of State for Health and Social Care*](https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Gardner-Harris-v-DHSC-judment-270422.pdf) [2022] EWHC 967 (Admin) – full judgment of the Divisional Court (Bean LJ and Garnham J). Quite long; 75 pages, 299 paragraphs.

    [Official summary](https://www.judiciary.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/Gardner-Harris-v-DHSC-summary-270422.pdf) – very short; six paragraphs.

    Paragraph 298 of the judgment:

    > The common law claim succeeds against the Secretary of State and Public Health England in respect of both the March Discharge Policy and April Admissions Guidance documents to this extent: the policy set out in each document was irrational in failing to advise that where an asymptomatic patient (other than one who had tested negative) was admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for 14 days.

    Or, from the summary:

    > the decisions of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to make and maintain a series of policies contained in documents issued on 17 and 19 March and 2 April 2020 were unlawful because the drafters of those documents failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission, which had been highlighted by (among others) Sir Patrick Vallance in a radio interview as early as 13 March. Non-symptomatic transmission would mean that one elderly patient moved from hospital to a care home could infect other residents before manifesting symptoms, or even without ever manifesting symptoms. The judges found that it was irrational for the DHSC not to have advised until mid-April 2020 that where an asymptomatic patient (other than one who had tested negative for COVID- 19) was admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for 14 days.

    The other claims brought were dismissed.

  9. Sending untested people back into care homes is testament to manslaughter. My mum has colleagues still dealing with the guilt of signing discharge papers knowing full well the policy and practice of doing so was grossly unsafe and killed people.

    This process was compounded by a complete lack/inadequate provision of PPE for care home workers, who got completely sidelined and forgotten about. Care home workers and residents were treated like second-class citizens.

    Never forget the times of them having to use binbags as PPE in a pandemic, whilst the government was fucking about handing contracts to their mates as the vulnerable died.

    Tory Britain in a nutshell.

  11. It’s a bit late. The people are dead, Matt Handcock has left office in disgrace. Boris will absolutely not answer for this in his stead. 30 years ago Boris and most of his front bench would have had to quit or be sacked multiple times over. Unless the Tory core voter base and former Red Wall voters do something, we’ll be stuck with these idiots until we can’t get rid of them by any legal means.

  12. I fully expect a similar ruling to be dealt out to the SNP in Scotland regarding care home deaths, however the actual punishment/outcry will actually happen.

  14. mum worked at a care home pretty much during the pandemic (not now though). there was a covid outbreak, it’s how mum got it in November 2020, hell it’s how I got it and ended up off work for 6 weeks.

    this killed nearly 20 residents. yes, some of them were very infirm but even the most infirm wouldn’t have been dead then if not for covid being brought back from the hospital.

    is anybody going to face up to this, I wonder.

  18. What’s the point of the high court rulings if fuck all happens. It’s not a ruling without a punishment it’s just someone stating a fact.

  20. Government proven to be directly responsible for the deaths of thousands of people (again).

    Direct consequences: negligible (again).

    This is our reality now. This, over and over.

  23. My great aunt lost her partner of fifty years due to this. She is still sobbing every day at his loss two years on.

    Then the government blamed the workers who they forced into this decision.

    It should be a resigning matter.

  24. Listening to the woman who brought this case on “the world at one” had me in tears of rage. These utter fucking cunts.

  25. Unlawful killing should result in jail sentences or this world is truly lost. Cannot stand by and watch people unlawfully kill our eldar relatives.

    Johnson putting it down to not knowing it can be A symptomatic. But that simply not the case at all.
    100% sure we will learn he was advise it was.
    Medics who advised him won’t let him get away with that one.
    This was a thoughtless and callous act.

  27. Just add it to the list of illegal/unlawful things this government has done, for which there will be absolutely no consequences whatsoever.

  28. Any other country would have protests, calls for another election and unrest until those fuckers are held accountable for what they’ve done. Why is nothing being done here?

  29. This is going to be yet another of those “Oh, that’s a cool little historical fact” to be noted down along with all the other times the UK government under the tories have broken the law, and nothing else has happened. Illegal prorogation of parliament, housing contracts, covid contracts, cronies in the lords, stealing refugees mobile phones, benefits underpayment, fucking deporting lawful uk residents to another fucking country. Fuck the tories and this criminal pm

  31. Remember when 10000 disabled died through out the nation and fuck all was done about it aswell?
    Nice to see our shit hole nation is keeping up with our shit hole standards

  32. The one thing that made me most furious during the pandemic was that they blamed care home staff for this tragedy. Boris accused them of not following the guidance (which at the time didn’t even exist) all whilst the government had seeded Covid into the care homes in the first place.

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