Commenting on the report that some 1,000 people have been discharged from hospital to care homes without COVID testing, Janet Finch-Saunders, the Shadow Minister for Social Care, said:

“We need an urgent inquiry of the impact of these hospital discharges on coronavirus infection rates in Welsh care homes.

“We need to be able to determine whether residents within the homes have come to harm because of the Welsh Government’s negligent approach to care home testing. It could have resulted in COVID-19 being introduced.

“The Health Minister has recently admitted that he probably would have made different choices at a number of points in the pandemic, and I am confident that hospital discharge and care home testing are two of those points.

“Care professionals have contacted me to explain that they were hounded by hospitals to accept patients; there may be a direct link between the high number of COVID-19 cases in care homes and hospital discharge.

“Having written to the Older People’s Commissioner about this situation already, I am aware that it is one of the issues that she has raised with the Equality and Human Rights Commission as a potential breach of older people’s human rights.”

ENDS