Health minister has testy exchange with Kay Burley and appears to blame scientists for care home crisis

The government’s care minister has been forced to backtrack after saying she could level the blame for Westminster’s record on protecting care homes from coronavirus on scientists.

Care homes across the UK have been struck with the virus, with analysis from the Office of National Statistics up to 1 May putting the total number of deaths related to the virus in care settings at 8,312 — making up roughly a quarter of overall fatalities registered by the agency.

However, the minister responsible for care homes, Helen Whately, has since defended the decision to discharge elderly people from hospitals almost immediately, usually without coronavirus testing, in a bid to free up beds.

“As we have learned more about the virus we have updated those infection control guidance, we have taken more steps, we have done the social care action plan,” she said in an interview with Sky News’ Kay Burley. “At all points in this we have followed the scientific guidance.”

Ms Burley replied: “And then you make the policy — you take (scientists’) advice and then you make the policy — you can’t stick this on the scientists.”

However the MP responded “But I can” — before backtracking and saying it was “not what I meant to say”.

She added: “What I mean to say is that we have taken the scientific advice at every stage of this process — we have taken the scientific advice and then judgment is made about what is the right decision to take.

“We have been trying to do everything we can for those in care homes because we know that they are at greater risk.”

It comes as Ms Whately attempts to defend the government’s actions around care homes despite those working in the sector warning they were left without adequate guidance for weeks at a critical point in the outbreak.

Meanwhile, data published by NHS England in early June revealed an increase in the number of patients discharged to care homes in March — rising from from 2.2 per cent at the start of the month to 3.5 per cent by the end of the month. By 16 April it had declined again to 2.3 per cent

Asked on the BBC’s Today programme if the government should recognise that sending people from hospitals to care home without testing them for the virus was a mistake, the minister said: “I have no doubt that in the months ahead we will look back on the decisions that were made and there will be a huge debate about what were the right and the wrong decisions, but what i can say at all times is that the decisions were made based on the clinical guidance on what was the right thing to do at each stage of the pandemic.”

She added: “What I recall at the time was our understanding of coronavirus was that it could be treated in a setting like a hospital or a care home, like other viruses — like influenza and norovirus —and you would be able to use infection control measures to prevent any spread.

“What I’ve said that we have since learned for instance is this situation of asymptomatic carriers, and that actually its so much harder than people had originally understood, so all the time we have been learning.”

At the time patient discharges were found to have risen at the end of March, more than 3,000 people had been confirmed to have died with the virus and 25,521 infections had been confirmed.