Covid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home Residents Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Emma Hardy
Main Page: Emma Hardy (Labour - Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle)Department Debates - View all Emma Hardy's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
Covid Pandemic: Testing of Care Home Residents
Emma Hardy Excerpts(1 year, 2 months ago)
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Helen Whately
I know how strongly the hon. Member feels about this. Clearly, we are having ongoing conversations about visiting in care homes at the moment. As is evident in the WhatsApps, I was concerned during the pandemic about ensuring that families were able to see loved ones in care homes. As I have said in response to a number of questions, public health advice had to be taken into account all the way through the pandemic. Getting the right balance between protecting people from the risk of covid being taken into care homes and seeing friends and family will, I am sure, be looked into as part of the public inquiry discussions to answer questions such as his about the decisions taken on visiting. I will continue to work with him here and now to ensure that those who are currently in care homes get the visiting that they need.
Emma Hardy (Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle) (Lab)
The front page of today’s Telegraph, which reveals that the medical advice was not followed, will be heartbreaking for so many families up and down the country, re-opening the grief that so many felt about the loss of their loved ones. I have listened carefully to the Minister’s responses, and she has basically said that she is unable to compel the public inquiry to move more quickly—that it is above her pay grade. But what she could do now is commit to lobbying the Government to complete that public inquiry before the end of the year, and to doing everything she can to bring those answers forward for all those families who are today feeling so deeply hurt and upset.
Helen Whately
On the first point about the use of public health advice, the hon. Lady is wrong; all decisions were informed by public health advice. On her request about the public inquiry, that inquiry is independent of government, so I cannot do what she asks.