𝓤𝓷𝓲𝓽𝓮𝓭 𝓝𝓮𝔀𝓼

The impact was akin to “generational slaughter” in the view of one civil servant involved. Elderly people sent to care homes received “insufficient protection at a time when they most needed it” according to the former judge who heads the inquiry. Indeed, they were left “abandoned and alone” in their final days or weeks. Be in no doubt, last week’s findings from the unnecessarily protracted inquiry into the Covid pandemic, and the government’s response, is the most damning indictment of all. It shows the assurances and pledges made by the then Prime Minister Boris Johnson and many of those serving under him proved to be of as much value as the useless, sometimes out-of-date PPE kit which was provided. And credit to Baroness Hallett, chair of the public inquiry, who pulled no punches in her verdict. Negligence by the government on an almost criminal scale meant Covid-19 “spread like wildfire” through care homes as the elderly were treated as “something of an afterthought” and allowed to die in homes “without the comfort or support of their loved ones”.

Outside the homes, sobbing relatives had to look through windows and watch loved ones effectively wither away, unable to touch them let alone hug them for a final farewell. Inside the homes, often confused elderly people were left dumbfounded and heartbroken relatives wouldn’t come and see them as they edged closer to death.

And the staff looking after them had been denied vital safety kit in many cases and wore bin liners and painters’ overalls as they tended to the dying. It really was as bleak as it could get. And even though this is the sixth of the 10 “modules” in the inquiry, it’s difficult to see how it can get any worse.

That is until you remember the government had been served a pretty stark warning just a few years before the pandemic.

In 2016 then health secretary Jeremy Hunt was in charge of Operation Cygnus which involved nearly 1,000 officials from 13 different government departments across England and Wales reacting to a simulated pandemic. It ran for three days and the modelling allowed for up to 400,000 excess deaths. In reality, a few years later Covid was to actually account for 232,000 excess deaths.

One of the key concerns uncovered was the vulnerability of care homes – and yet clearly nothing was done, as 25,000 patients were discharged from hospital and sent to care homes without Covid tests and not isolated upon arrival. In total, there were 43,000 deaths in the social care system. And while it is absolutely appropriate that those responsible for this unforgivable dereliction of duty are held to account, for this £200million inquiry to be of maximum value it is crucial that it sets out what needs to be learnt from the horrific events six and a half years ago.

As more than one health expert told me on my radio show last week: it is a case of when, not if, there will be another pandemic of some sort. Then-health secretary Matt Hancock falsely boasted of putting a “protective ring” around the care sector. In reality, that ring was more like a millstone that dragged too many to a premature and avoidable death.