Covid: Bereaved families plan legal action on care homes

A solicitor representing 350 families who lost loved ones to Covid has said it is likely they will look to bring legal action against the Welsh government.

On Wednesday, the High Court ruled that discharging patients to care homes in England at the beginning of the pandemic was unlawful.

In England, all patients were tested when discharged from 15 April 2020.

But in Wales, the policy change was made a fortnight later.

The ruling came after two women took Public Health England and the England health secretary, then Matt Hancock, to court.

Dr Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris said it had caused a "shocking death toll".

First Minister Mark Drakeford said he would study the High Court judgement which "may have implications for Wales".

But lawyer Craig Court, who is acting on behalf of the Covid-19 bereaved Families for Justice Cymru group, told BBC Cymru Wales's Newyddion S4C programme: "If decisions in England were unlawful, it probably follows that decisions in Wales were unlawful.

"And if the delay in making changes in England was unlawful, it follows that a further two-week delay in Wales was unlawful.

"The difficulty with a claim will be in the detail. That's something we're still taking in. I think that further litigation will follow as a result of the decision. Just how that looks is a little bit unclear at the moment."

Brian Rosenberg is chief executive of a group of care home companies, responsible for Tregwilym Lodge - a nursing home in Newport which lost more than 20 residents to Covid over the Easter weekend in 2020.  

Mr Rosenberg said he suspected Covid got into the home through one person discharged from hospital untested.

"Undertakers were so overwhelmed not only with us, but with people passing away in the community that they couldn't even remove the bodies quick enough," he said.

He believes lives could have been saved if policy had been changed.

"There's more that could have been done by just applying practical application of a safe discharge policy. Just by being cautious. Just by recognising the frailty of the people that are in the care homes.

"I'm also very angry and upset that by applying common sense we could have avoided this. Absolutely avoided a lot of it."

Margaret Williams lost her 95-year-old mother, Peggy Patrick, to Covid in April 2020. Her mother had been living with dementia at a care home.

She said she was not made aware her mother had Covid until she saw the death certificate, and said the High Court ruling in England gave her hope that she, and other families, will now get justice.

"All these people died. This is not just about me and my Mum. The groups I'm in, people have lost family members; husbands, daughters, sons, mums and dads."

She said the judgement strengthened calls for an independent Covid inquiry in Wales.

"Surely this Welsh government should realise we need answers. They need to admit where failings were.

"I think circumstances in Wales were different and those need to be looked at - and whoever is in power needs to make that happen."

The Welsh government has consistently rejected calls for a separate Covid inquiry in Wales, saying decisions made in Cardiff will be scrutinised in the wider UK inquiry.

Reacting to the High Court judgement this week in an interview for the BBC's Politics Wales programme, Mark Drakeford said: "I'll study what the High Court had to say.

"It does look like it is an important judgement and it may have implications for us in Wales, so I will make sure it is properly studied.

"But having not been part of the case at any point, it wouldn't be right for me to draw conclusions on what I have read in newspaper reports."