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Care Campaign for the Vulnerable - official statement

Press Care Home Professional https://www.carehomeprofessional.com/care-leaders-react-after-sajid-javid-replaces-matt-hancock/?

CCFTV believes Matt Hancock’s resignation was the bare minimum required given the recent disclosure around his personal failure to maintain social distancing at a time when he was imploring members of the public to do that very thing. His departure is therefore welcome, albeit when a public enquiry is progressed next year to review the Governments handling of the Covid pandemic, he must continue to remain accountable for those decisions he made, that we believe, resulted in the premature deaths of many elderly and vulnerable people in care homes.

It is clear to CCFTV that ‘no ring of steel’ was placed around the care home sector and that discharges from hospitals to care homes without Covid testing was an actively pursued policy. So much so, that some providers were offered financial inducements to take discharged patients regardless of their Covid status. It appears to us that the need to ensure the NHS was not overwhelmed came at a cost of older peoples lives and that was a choice knowingly made by Government. Mr Hancock undoubtedly is personally culpable for the part he played in that process.

He also has presided over a series of lockdowns without mandating any systems that could and should have provided regulators with an ability to monitor the delivery of care remotely. We have been campaigning for years for the use of independent safety monitoring that could provide transparency and reassurance for families, yet he and many other Government ministers have failed to even acknowledge the value of such systems. We believe that was negligent particularly given the severity of the pandemic and the toll it has taken on older people, their families, carers and social care resources.