High Court Ruling on Unlawful Patient Discharge Policy

Care England, the largest and most diverse representative body for independent providers of adult social care, has called that the high court ruling on the Government’s ‘unlawful’ patient discharge policy must leave a positive legacy.

Professor Martin Green OBE, Chief Executive of Care England, says:

“In the first phase of COVID, the Care Home Sector suffered terribly due to be seeing seen as the poor relation to the NHS. This undermined the care work of the sector and placed thousands of society’s most vulnerable at risk of infection. The outcome of the discharge policy ultimately produced in excess of 32,000 reported deaths in care homes during the pandemic. Care England calls on the Government to recognise the hardships the adult care sector endured and commit to supporting the care sector to rebuild and grow following the Covid pandemic.”

In a High Court judgement handed down yesterday Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham found that the decisions of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to make and maintain a series of policies contained in documents failed to consider the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission.

Martin Green continues:

“More resources should have been allocated to the social care sector once the decision was made that the care sector was to relieve some of the NHS pressure in the early months of the pandemic. Care England was telling the Department of Health and Social Care from the very earliest stage of this pandemic, there was serious issues in the care home sector around discharge, PPE supplies and staffing. In addition to what we were saying, the Government’s SAGE advisory committee also raised issues around asymptomatic transmission. Care England is determined that lessons will be learned from this pandemic within the forthcoming Public Inquiry.

I hope this judgement will lead to a change in attitude, both in Government and the NHS, and a recognition that social care supports some of the most vulnerable people in our communities. Never again should organisations take precedence over the needs of people.”