Former chief advisor to the Prime Minister Dominic Cummings has claimed Boris Johnson was misled by Health Secretary Matt Hancock on Covid testing of discharged hospital patients to care homes.
Addressing a parliamentary inquiry into the pandemic, Cummings (pictured) said Hancock gave personal assurances to the Prime Minister in March that hospital patients would be tested before they went into care homes.
Data released by NHS England last summer showed 25,060 people were discharged from hospital into care homes between 17 March and 16 April prior to guidance requiring patients to have a Covid-19 test before discharge.
“Hancock told us in the cabinet room that people were going to be tested before they went back to care homes,” said Cummings.
“We were told categorically in March that people would be tested before they went back to care homes, we only subsequently found out that that hadn’t happened,” he added.
Figures published by the Office for National Statistics show there have been around 42,000 care home resident deaths involving Covid-19 in England & Wales.
Cummings said Hancock’s rhetoric that the government had thrown a "protective ring” around care homes “right from the start” of the pandemic was “complete nonsense”.
“Quite the opposite of putting a shield around them, we sent people with Covid back to the care homes,” he added.
