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Coronavirus latest: Care home boss claims authorities pressured him into taking residents with Covid-19 as lawyers prepare for 'wave of litigation' cases
Exclusive: After patients were transferred from hospitals to care home, five residents died from coronavirus
By David Parsley
Wednesday, 20th May 2020, 5:56 pm
A care home boss has claimed that pressure from NHS Trusts meant he was forced to take two hospital patients into his homes, which led to nine residents contracting the virus and five deaths.
Despite requesting confirmation that both patients had tested negative for Covid-19, Andrew Winstanley, managing director of Berkley Care Group, said neither the CQC, which regulates health and social care in England, or Public Health England would provide negative test certificates
As a result, Mr Winstanley said, three residents died at his care home in Hillingdon, Middlesex, and two more succumbed to the virus in other homes across his group.
CQC said it is not within its remit its remit to provide Covid-19 test certificates.
Legal profession prepares for 'wave of claims'
The claim is made as medical negligence lawyers across the country are preparing for a “wave of litigations” as families who have lost loved ones in care homes begin to seek justice for mistakes that may have led to the spread of the virus among some of society’s most vulnerable people.
Mr Winstanley, who runs six homes across the south of England providing care for 330 residents, said: “We were pressured by NHS Trusts to take both residents without negative test certificates. We weren’t left with any choice but to take them when the NHS was trying to create bed capacity. After we took those residents in we had five
deaths.
A spokesman for the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said: “No care home should be forced to take back recovering Covid-19 patients if they do not feel they can provide the appropriate care. If a care home provider does not feel they can provide the appropriate care, that individual’s local authority should secure alternative appropriate accommodation and care for the remainder of the required isolation period.”
It is this kind of case which Carlos Lopez, a clinical negligence lawyer from Hampson Hughes, is certain will cause a “a wave of litigations” as families seek justice for loved ones who died from Covid-19 in such circumstances.
“It’s fair to say there will be a wave of litigation as a result of this health crisis,” said Mr Lopez. “We have been approached by one family already with a similar story, and it will come down to who’s to blame. We will look at the care home, the NHS Trust that discharged the patient, the CQC advice to care homes, and also Government guidance on the matter of transferring patients from hospitals to care homes. But if you ask me if someone is to blame, then yes.”
Inquiry into care home deaths 'inevitable'
Jocelyn Cockburn, a human rights expert and partner at legal firm Hodge Jones and Allen, said: “It is clear that the high level of deaths of residents and staff in care homes across the UK has raised major concerns in relation to the Government’s response to Covid-19 and possibly also the actions of specific privately or publicly run care homes. Whether there are individual claims or legal challenges by families of those who have lost their lives, will depend on the circumstances of each case. However, there is also a clear need for care home deaths to be investigated as a whole so that systemic failings can be identified, and the right lessons learned.”
Ms Cockburn believes calls in order to discover “the basis upon which decisions were taken and whether steps could have been taken to mitigate the risk of deaths”.
She added: “Article 2 of the Human Rights Act, imposes a duty on the state to protect the ‘right to life’ of its citizens it also requires an investigation to take place where there are arguable failings to do this. If as the Justice Secretary has suggested decisions were taken to protect the NHS in preference to care homes then this must be scrutinised especially in light of the vulnerability of care home residents and there are also questions as to the extent to which care homes were given the information and tools to protect their residents and staff in the face of the known risk to life.”
Care home boss blocked from taking new residents
Mr Winstanley also said one local authority in which he operates a care home informed him that he was not permitted to take on new residents until his home had passed risk assessment conducted by the council.
“We only found out about this by accident when a family told us they wanted to bring their family member from a hospital into one of our care homes. They said they had been told by their local authority that all new residents were blocked until after the risk assessment. I checked this, and it was confirmed. This is how we found out. No government body thought to tell care homes about this.
“The family is distraught as they believe their loved-one will now be forced to stay in a far more dangerous place, a hospital. I can see the point of view of the Government here, in protecting residents, but we need to know when the local authorities will be able to carry out risk assessments at our homes. I asked one and they just said ‘how long is a piece of string’.
Asked if the Government had directed local authorities to ban new residents in care homes before a risk assessment takes place the spokesman for the DHSC said: “These claims are completely untrue.”
Update 21-May at 7.45am: A previous version of this story said Berkley Care Group had been pressured by CQC into taking hospital patients into its homes without Covid-19 tests being performed. Berkley Group was, in fact, claiming it had been pressured by NHS Trusts. We apologise for any confusion caused.