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Government abandoned care homes during pandemic, People's Covid Inquiry hears
Deborah Philbrow, founder of Hursley Workroom near Winchester, a team of volunteers who sewed hundreds of sets of scrubs for frontline NHS medics and care home staff who needed personal protective equipment (PPE) in April 2020

A DOCTOR at the fourth session of the People’s Covid Inquiry condemned the government’s “complete dereliction of duty” during the Covid-19 pandemic. 

The inquiry, organised by Keep Our NHS Public, on Wednesday evening examined why the impact on disabled people and those in social care was so significant.

Palliative care medicine consultant Rachel Clarke said: “Care homes had a completely different supply chain and hospices were categorised as care homes. We were only issued with a two-day supply of masks … there was a really widespread, really invisible problem of a lack of personal protective equipment (PPE) in non-hospital areas.

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