Covid inquiry hears of ‘generational slaughter’ in care homes

The assertion of an official according to which there was a “generational massacre in the care homes” in the first days of the pandemic is a sentence which “breaks the experience of thousands of our families”, heard the cocvid survey.

Pete Weatherby, a lawyer for the COVVI-19 campaign group, bereaved, the families of justice in the United Kingdom, said that the expression may seem an exaggeration, but he highlighted the questions that the request must resolve.

His declaration of opening came on the first day of the sixth part of the Covid survey which will focus on the impact of the pandemic on care services for the elderly and disabled.

The government said it was determined to learn the lessons in the investigation.

The main official Alasdair Donaldson comments on generational slaughter in his written evidence to the investigation, said Weatherby.

The proof of Mr. Donalds also describes the “complete chaos” at the Ministry of Health and Social Coins when he started working there in April 2020, shortly after the start of the pandemic.

Weatherby urged the investigation to call Mr. Donaldson to testify in person.

Nearly 46,000 residents of the care house died with COVID in England and in Wales between March 2020 and January 2022, many of which in the first weeks of the pandemic.

Key questions that families hope that the investigation will notably answer why the decision was made in March 2020 to quickly pay certain hospital patients in care houses.

They blend this in part for the sowing of the virus in care houses in the first weeks of the pandemic.

There are also questions about the coverage notices “not canceling” to be placed on certain residents of the house by medical services and on the guest policies that prevented families from seeing their loved ones for months.

The hearing began with filmed testimonies of people who lost dear beings during the pandemic.

Ann, from Wales, told the Every Story Matters project of the investigation that his father, who had dementia, lived in a care home when the pandemic struck.

When the visits were limited, “he did not understand why we were outside his window,” she said.

He has become more and more confused, in tears and begging to be authorized to die.

When he finally died, Ann was informed of his death by a telephone call in the middle of the night.

Julie de Yorkshire said that she “would never accept” with the way her mother died – under sedation and alone.

“There are so many of us who will never move on. It will be with us for the rest of our lives,” she said.

And she added: “Things have to change. It’s not fair – you should have dignity in dignity.”

Nicky Hastie attended the investigation in person on Monday, entering a photo of his mother Margaret.

Nicky says that she noticed that her mother was dying of Covid during a video call before the staff noticed, and described this time as “traumatic”.

“She is not dead with dignity and there was no attenuation of her pain and her suffering,” she told BBC News.

The lawyer for the Jacqueline Carey KC survey stated the scope of the hearings, warning this section would undoubtedly be “emotional and painful for many people who participate and followed these procedures”.

Ms. Carey also highlighted each story of testimony of home workers.

She quoted a worker in a Durham care house who described how the virus “spread like forest fires”.

“At one point, 67 of the 87 residents were tested positive, as well as a high percentage of our staff.

“We were all terrified, we put the virus at the house of our families,” said the care worker.

In particular, Ms. Carey said that the survey would investigate the lack of personnel in care homes and the fate of care workers, many of whom were in the national minimum wage, as well as migrant workers.

Even before the pandemic, the state of the care sector “was fragile,” said Carey at the hearing.

The cocovated test capacity was extremely limited, especially at the start of the pandemic where tests were limited to people who had symptoms.

The survey will also examine the shortage of personal protective equipment (EPI) in care homes.

Not only were PPE supplies very difficult to obtain, but there were problems to know if the staff had been trained to use it and, when he finally arrived, a part was not fit for use, with straps that continued, for example.

This part of the investigation should last five weeks.

He will hear proofs of bereaved parents, disabled people, associations and care workers’ organizations representing care providers, as well as unions and the local government.