Covid: Discharging hospital patients to care homes 'unlawful'

Government policies on discharging patients from hospital to care homes at the start of the Covid pandemic have been ruled unlawful by the High Court.

The ruling comes after two women took the government to court, saying Covid patients were discharged from hospitals back to care homes without testing.

Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris, whose fathers died, said it caused a "shocking death toll" of residents.

The government had said it "worked tirelessly" to protect the public.

Dr Gardner, 60, from Sidmouth, Devon, said Prime Minister Boris Johnson should resign in the wake of the ruling.

The independent district councillor with a PhD in virology, said: "There are so many reasons why the prime minister should resign."

Her father Michael Gibson was 88 when he died on 3 April 2020 while living in a home in Oxfordshire during the UK's first lockdown.

His cause of death was given as "suspected Covid" after the home took in a patient discharged from a hospital with the virus.

The women claimed key policies of discharging patients from hospitals into care homes were implemented with no testing and no suitable isolation arrangements in the homes.

The High Court said the policies failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission of the virus.

The women partially succeeded in claims against the health secretary and Public Health England.

In their ruling, Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham concluded that, despite there being "growing awareness" of the risk of asymptomatic transmission throughout March 2020, there was no evidence that then Health Secretary Matt Hancock addressed the issue of the risk to care home residents of such transmission.

However, the judges rejected other claims made under human rights legislation, and against NHS England.

Before the ruling was announced the government had said: "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."