Source · Select Committees · Public Accounts Committee
Recommendation 9
9
On 17 March the NHS told trusts to discharge urgently all medically fit hospital patients...
Conclusion
On 17 March the NHS told trusts to discharge urgently all medically fit hospital patients with COVID-19 to maximise inpatient and critical care capacity. On 2 April, the Department told care homes that they needed to make their full capacity available and could admit patients with COVID-19 by isolating suspected or confirmed cases. Some Local Authorities were pressurising Care Homes to take patients discharged from hospitals.19 Yet until 15 April there was no policy to test patients for COVID-19 before discharging them to care homes. By this point 25,000 people had been discharged from hospitals to care homes and the Department does not know how many had COVID-19.20
Government Response
A response document is linked to this report, dated 18 November 2020. Response attribution to this conclusion has not been verified. Read the response document ↗