Covid-19 Testing – the scandal in care homes

What did you think Covid-19 testing was for? Did you have the crazy idea we were in the middle of a pandemic, and the purpose of testing was to try to protect human lives? Think again.

It has been revealed that England’s Care Quality Commission and the Scottish Care Inspectorate are refusing to publicise details of deaths in care homes they are responsible for and the testers in care homes have been hushing up their findings. Why? They are concerned, and rightly so, that the fact that many care homes are in effect death traps, might not be a great recommendation for those intending to spend money entrusting their loved ones to what should be safe and secure environments.

Residents’ families are furious, including some whose relatives have already perished in the homes. “The patient is the important one here, not the corporation”, they assert. That must be right, but that is not the way the testing framework is set up in Britain.

This is an abomination of how the system should work. Private profit is being put above human life and – not surprisingly – it’s the big care homes owned by greedy corporations who are the worst offenders.

Remember we have already seen a terrifying loss of life when the Tories sent all those formerly living in care homes from hospital back to the homes – deliberately omitting to test them for Covid.

This is no way to fight a pandemic. The Westminster government has put private firms and unelected advisers at the centre of its response to Covid-19. The Tories have demonstrated a breathtaking lack of leadership and responsibility while exposing their own self-interest and cronyism, together with the devastation that 10 years of austerity has wrought on our public services.

Once the scale of Tory incompetence is fully revealed, as it is bound to be, then the entire process of fighting Covid-19 will be seen to have been a fraud.