A Tory Minister has admitted for the first time that the UK government prioritised protecting the NHS over care homes as the coronavirus epidemic hit.
Robert Buckland, the Justice Secretary, confirmed that government policy was to protect the NHS ahead of care homes due to the limited testing capacity available in March and April.
Care homes across the UK have become the epicentre of the coronavirus crisis with a lack of PPE, testing, staffing shortages adding to the soaring deaths of elderly residents.Governments in England and Scotland have been accused of seeding the virus in care homes by discharging elderly patients from hospitals without testing them for the virus as they prepared for a wave of covid-19 patients to swamp the NHS.Get