Lessons need to be learnt after an inquiry found that Government failings in care settings allowed the spread of Covid, a woman whose mother died during the pandemic has said. The sixth report from the Covid inquiry, which was published on Tuesday, said the care sector appeared to be "something of an afterthought" in the early stages of the pandemic and there was no "protective ring" put around homes as claimed by ministers at the time. There were more than 43,000 recorded deaths involving Covid in care homes between March 2020 and July 2022.
Martina Ferguson, whose mum Ursula Derry died during the coronavirus pandemic, said "we really do need to learn from what's happened". She said the report has "reopened, wounds for many families here in Northern Ireland". "Many families in our bereaved group were prevented from being with loved ones when they were at their most vulnerable, you know, they stood outside windows trying to communicate through a glass.
"I did that for nine months when my mummy was in her care home." Around 1.5 million adults were either living in care homes or receiving support in their own homes when Covid hit. Action to protect them came too late, causing devastating consequences, the inquiry said. Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster's Good Morning Ulster programme, Ferguson said: "Years later, families are still carrying deep feelings of guilt and, despite having done absolutely nothing wrong, but they wonder whether their loved one felt, abandoned, frightened, or alone." Ferguson has created Ursula's Law, a proposed legislative campaign in Northern Ireland that is named in her mum's memory, which aims to establish a statutory right for patients to designate a care partner across all health and social care settings.
Government failings allowed Covid 'to spread like wildfire' in care homes, inquiry finds Covid failings in care homes: What the inquiry says In 2016, Prof Raphael Bengoa published a review, external that was supposed to change the way Northern Ireland does healthcare. Ferguson makes reference to the report and said that "when you look at what happened, bereaved families and other families during the pandemic, guidance completely failed us during the pandemic". "If we face another health crisis or a pandemic, we face, in my opinion, utter chaos in healthcare settings because the trust is totally broken and people simply won't comply," she added.
She said if Stormont is serious about Bengoa's report and improving the health care system they "must enshrine this absolute right in law" for patients to designate an essential family carer. The 287-page report also highlighted shortages of personal protective equipment for carers and criticised the way hospital patients were discharged into care homes. It said limits on visits caused enormous harm to residents and their loved ones, though it blamed this on care homes themselves.
Pauline Shepherd, chief executive of Independent Health & Care Providers, said the "government's response to Covid in care homes was much too little, too late". "It was a horrific time for people living in the care homes, their families and the staff that were caring for them." A decade after a critical health service review, has there been any change? Covid bereaved criticise NI executive for lack of engagement
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