Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether patients were discharged to care homes by NHS hospitals in the 30 days before ministers introduced routine COVID-19 testing; if so, why; and what assessment was made of the preparedness of the social care sector for the arrival of such patients.

It has always been our priority to ensure that everyone is discharged safely from hospital and to the most appropriate available place. On 19 March we published the COVID-19 Hospital Discharge Service Requirements to support the safe and rapid discharge of patients who no longer need acute care. This specified that, wherever possible, people who are clinically ready should be supported to return to their place of residence (this could be a care home), where assessment of longer-term needs will take place. This follows the ‘Discharge to Assess’ model. Where a patient had been tested for COVID-19, we specified that results – whether negative or positive – should be included in a patient’s discharge documents.

To support the sector, this guidance also sets out the steps that care providers should be taking, and we provided £1.3 billion to support the process. We have provided advice to care homes throughout the pandemic in response to the latest conditions and emerging evidence and data.

On 2 April we published our Admission and Care of Residents during COVID-19 Incident in a Care Home guidance. This set out further advice on infection control procedures for care homes e.g. limiting visits to essential visits only unless exceptional circumstances and providing advice on isolation, decontamination, cleaning and protective measures for staff. We recommended that all symptomatic residents in care homes should be immediately isolated for 14 days from the onset of symptoms, including patients discharged from hospital.

On 15 April we published our Adult Social Care Plan which included a commitment to all patients being tested prior to discharge to a care home. A copy of COVID-19: Our Action Plan for Adult Social Care is attached.

Copies of the COVID-19 Hospital Discharge Service Requirements and Admission and Care of Residents during COVID-19 Incident in a Care Home are attached.