“More Could Have Been Done” say Former Welsh Minister on Early Pandemic Decisions Regarding Care Home Discharges

A former Welsh health minister has acknowledged that, with the benefit of hindsight, more could have been done in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic to protect care home residents from potential infection.

Vaughan Gething, who held the position of Health Minister in Wales when the coronavirus crisis first unfolded, recently gave evidence at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry. During the session, he reflected on the challenges faced by government officials as they worked to respond to an unprecedented public health emergency.

One of the key issues under scrutiny was the early policy of discharging hospital patients into care homes without mandatory COVID-19 testing. The aim at the time was to free up hospital beds in anticipation of a surge in coronavirus admissions. However, concerns have since been raised about the risk this posed to vulnerable care home residents.

While giving evidence, Mr Gething explained that the official advice available to him in March 2020 did not recommend testing all patients before they were discharged into care settings. He stated that there was no scientific guidance presented to him at that point which advised universal testing for hospital discharges.

“There was no advice brought to me at that time recommending testing for every person leaving hospital,” he said. “It simply wasn’t the guidance we were receiving, and I had to make decisions based on the best evidence available then.”

When asked about the potential for people without symptoms to still spread the virus, he said that while asymptomatic transmission was not fully understood or confirmed in mid-March 2020, it could not be completely ruled out.

Reflecting on the issue, he admitted that earlier testing might have helped reduce the risk of transmission into care homes. “In hindsight, had we had the capacity and rapid turnaround for tests, introducing routine testing earlier might have been a helpful additional safeguard,” he added.

The inquiry also addressed a delay in formal guidance being issued. Although ministers in Wales decided on 15 April 2020 that no one should be discharged into a care home without a negative COVID-19 test result, the official guidance was not published until 29 April – a two-week gap.

When asked about this delay, Mr Gething acknowledged that it should not have happened. “That is something I fully accept,” he said. “The guidance could and should have been issued sooner once the decision had been made.”

He also noted that Wales, like other parts of the UK, faced challenges due to limited testing capacity and a lack of shared information from the UK Government in the early stages of the pandemic. Nevertheless, he admitted that these constraints did not fully account for the delay in issuing care home guidance.

The impact of early pandemic policy on care homes remains a key concern for the ongoing inquiry. Many in the care sector, including managers and frontline staff, continue to seek clarity and reassurance that lessons have been learned to ensure better protection for residents in any future health crisis.