The UK government’s policies on discharging thousands of patients from hospital into care homes at the start of the coronavirus pandemic were unlawful because they failed to take into account the risk of asymptomatic transmission of the virus, the High Court ruled on Wednesday.
Two judges found that decisions of the Department of Health and Social Care laid out in policy documents issued in March 2020 and April 2020 failed to take into account the risk that moving asymptomatic elderly patients from a hospital to a care home could infect other residents.
The court ruled that it was “irrational” for DHSC to fail to advise that asymptomatic patients should have been kept apart from other care home residents for 14 days to avoid possible transmission of the virus, unless they had already tested negative for Covid-19.