Recommendation 10

Some organisations such as Care England highlighted to us the flawed nature of this policy and reported that, given the absence of testing and inadequate PPE, social care felt abandoned.21 When we challenged the Department and the NHS on such a reckless and negligent policy, the Department told us that when the NHS issued its guidance in March COVID-19 was not widespread.22 NHSE&I said it has always been the case that they want to discharge people who are clinically fit and staying in hospital could be harmful for the elderly.23 When asked why those discharged had not been tested, it told us it was following testing advice provided by Public Health England.24 Public Health England clarified that, at the start of the outbreak, testing was limited to 3,500 tests a day nationally and so it had agreed with the NHS and the Chief Medical Officer priority groups for testing: those in intensive treatment units; those with respiratory infections; and limited testing in care homes to diagnose outbreaks. Public Health England also told us that “what was becoming clear in the back-end of March and certainly from the beginning of April was that there was an asymptomatic phase, which means that people can transfer the virus without ever having symptoms, or a significant pre-symptomatic phase, which is where the virus could be shared”.25 It is clear that the availability of test and testing should have been ramped up much more quickly after the NHS had declared Level 4 National Incident (its most severe incident level) on the 30th January 2020.