Amnesty International has launched a campaign calling for an inquiry on care homes after a report claimed residents were abandoned to die during the early stages of the pandemic.
The campaign urges a full independent public inquiry into the pandemic, with an interim phase starting immediately focusing on older people in care homes, after it found a series of “shockingly irresponsible” government decisions led to “multiple violations of residents’ human rights”.
The pressure group’s ‘As If Expendable: The UK Government’s Failure to Protect Older People in Care Homes during the Covid-19 Pandemic’ report found managers and staff said they were left without guidance, PPE or access to testing.
Other key failings identified in the report include decisions to discharge thousands of untested hospital patients into care homes and “misuse” of Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) forms.
Care home managers reported to Amnesty cases of local GP surgeries or Clinical Commissioning Groups requesting that they should insert DNAR forms into the files of residents as a blanket approach.
The report claims a group of six Sussex CCGs issued DNAR guidance on 23 March to 35 GP surgeries and 98 care homes. The document instructed all practices to: “Search your clinical system for any care home patients who do not have a resuscitation order recorded (either ‘not for’ or ‘for’ resuscitation) and put appropriate orders in place”.
The investigation by the human rights group’s Crisis Response team received multiple reports of care home residents’ right to NHS services - including access to general medical services and hospital admission - being denied during the pandemic.
Care home staff and relatives told Amnesty how sending residents to hospital was discouraged or outright refused.
Amnesty also received multiple reports right across the country of doctors refusing to enter care homes and only being available for consultations by phone or video call, regardless of a sick resident’s symptoms or even in the case of end-of-life support.
In addition to a public inquiry, the human rights organisation’s campaign is calling on the government to order a thorough review of DNAR forms in care home residents’ care plans and medical files to ensure they were not imposed without due process.
Amnesty is also urging the government to ensure care home residents have full access to the NHS services to which they are entitled, make regular testing available to visitors, as well as to care home residents and staff; and ensure that guidelines for visits put the best interests of residents.
“The government made a series of shockingly irresponsible decisions which abandoned care home residents to die. Discharged without being tested, thousands of older people were sent to care homes at great risk to themselves and other residents and to staff,” said Amnesty International UK director Kate Allen.
“The appalling death toll was entirely avoidable - it is a scandal of monumental proportions. As the country faces a second wave of coronavirus, we urgently need a full independent public inquiry into the care home scandal, so that lessons can be learned and lives protected, before any more lives are lost,” she added.
