CARE leaders criticised the government yesterday for failing to prioritise care homes in its early pandemic planning, as the official death toll for elderly residents rose to almost 10,000. 

Care England chief executive Martin Green claimed that early planning had been too focused on the NHS and there was “not a recognition” that the most vulnerable people were in care homes. 

“We should have been focusing on care homes from the start of this pandemic,” he told MPs on the health & social care committee yesterday. 

“What we saw, at the start, was a focus on the NHS, which meant care homes often had their medical support from the NHS withdrawn.”

Mr Green said that elderly people with Covid-19 had been discharged from hospital into care homes.

Association of Directors of Social Services president James Bullion also shared concerns that the risks of transmission of the virus between health and care settings had not been taken into account. 

The criticism follows a leaked Public Health England study that found that agency workers, many of whom are on zero-hours contracts, had spread the virus across six care homes. 

The Guardian claimed that the report had been conducted from April 11 to 13 and its findings were known by the Department of Health & Social Care since last month. Despite this, it was only circulated to care-home providers, councils and public-health directors last week. 

The government has since said that agency staff must only work in one care home, while Health Secretary Matt Hancock insisted yesterday that the government had given “unprecedented levels of support for the social care system.”  

National Care Forum executive director Vic Rayner told the committee that the failure to test staff and residents early on in the pandemic meant that they were unable to pinpoint the problem, leaving care workers feeling responsible.

Unison assistant general secretary Christina McAnea said: “No-one should be suggesting care workers are spreading the virus. The blame lies at the government's door.

“Ministers should be providing enough protective kit, access to testing and ensuring those who need to be off work get full pay.”

The Covid-19 death toll in English and Welsh care homes now stands at 9,980, according to the Office for National Statistics. The figures also show a decline in the death rate: 1,666 in the week ending May 8, from 2,423 in the previous seven days. However, other estimates put the death toll far higher, at 22,000.