Coronavirus diary, Monday 15 June

The extent of the tragedy of Britain's care homes during the coronavirus crisis and the reason behind it are set out in a damning report from the National Audit Office into the situation in England.

First, the facts. To date over 30,000 care home residents have died in the UK, almost a third of the total toll. 

The reason, says the report, is the lack of preparation, going back over twenty years when the need to integrate the HHS with social services was recognised. 

Since then, says the report, there have been 12 government white papers, green papers and consultations and five independent reviews (not a partridge, in a pear tree?).

No action. As a result Britain was unprepared for the coronavirus crisis with care homes the worst victim. At the start of the pandemic, 25,000 untested residents were discharged from hospital to homes where infection spread like wildfire. 

Meg Hillier, chair of the Commons public accounts committee, said homes were at the back of the queue for PPE and testing. Residents and staff were an afterthought, yet again out of sight and out of mind'.

One result of the failure to prepare for the crisis, says the report, was the lack of data from social care, with about 20,000 individual suppliers. Only a fraction of supplies needed reached the homes from central stocks.

Frontline health workers had been badly let down by the government, Ms Hillier said.

Public health services have changed over the years. 
When I was a reporter, county councils and urban district councils in Wales had much greater responsibility, through Medical Officers of Health and District Public Health Inspectors. 

I used to report meetings of the Penarth mothers and babies  and child welfare committees.

Conversely, in the 1960s, when I was working in local government, integration  of departments with chief officers, including child care and care for the aged, took responsibilities away from local authorities. 

Former Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, responding to the report, said it was extraordinary that no-one seemed to recognise the risk to care homes, pointing out that Hong Kong and Germany had moved to safeguard theirs weeks earlier. 

Over the wasted  past twenty years the subject has been 'kicked into the long grass' time after time. Perhaps the next enquiry will be heeded and lives saved.