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| Getty Images |
A civil servant's assertion that there was a "generational slaughter within care homes" in the early days of the pandemic is a phrase that "chimes with the experience of thousands of our families", the Covid inquiry has heard.
Pete Weatherby, barrister for the campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said the phrase might seem an exaggeration but it highlighted issues the inquiry must address.
His opening statement came on the first day of the sixth part of the Covid inquiry which will focus on the impact of the pandemic on care services for elderly and disabled people.
The government has said it is committed to learning lessons from the inquiry.
Senior civil servant Alasdair Donaldson made the comment about generational slaughter in his written evidence to the inquiry, Mr Weatherby said.
Mr Donaldson's evidence also describes "complete chaos" in the Department of Health and Social Care when he started working there in April 2020, soon after the start of the pandemic.
Mr Weatherby urged the inquiry to call Mr Donaldson to give evidence in person.
Nearly 46,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales between March 2020 and January 2022, many of them in the early weeks of the pandemic.
Key questions the families hope the inquiry will answer include why the decision was made in March 2020 to rapidly discharge some hospital patients into care homes.
They blame this in part for seeding the virus into care homes in the early weeks of the pandemic.
There are also questions about blanket "do not resuscitate" notices being placed on some care home residents by medical services and about visiting policies which prevented families seeing their loved ones for months.
The hearing began with filmed testimony from people who lost loved ones during the pandemic. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Covid Inquiry |
A woman who was refused entry to see her dying mother in a County Armagh care home during the Covid-19 pandemic has expressed her shock at seeing delivery drivers and workmen coming and going freely without any protective gear.
Agnes McCusker told the UK Covid-19 Inquiry she offered to wear full personal protective equipment (PPE) to visit her mother Bridget Halligan, even from an outside courtyard, but staff denied her access.
In April 2020, she made several requests to be with her 95-year-old mother after she contracted Covid-19, only to be later told that she had died alone in her bed.
The government has said it is committed to learning lessons from the inquiry.
Scant information
Mrs McCusker, who gave evidence on behalf of the Northern Ireland Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice, said she encountered several staff at the home who were not wearing PPE.
She told the inquiry her mother had been relatively active but had to go into the home following several falls.
The home was closed to visits on 18 March 2020 and Mrs McCusker said she was concerned that her mother "would go downhill" if she did not see her family.
She said relatives received scant information from the home and were not allowed to bring Mrs Halligan any food. They had raised concerns that she was a "poor eater" and needed nourishment because she did not eat much of the food served in the home. --->READ MORE HEREFollow links below to relevant/related stories and resources:
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