Discharging Untested Patients to Care Homes Ruled Unlawful by High Court

2 min read

Government policies on discharging untested patients from hospital to care homes in England at the start of the Covid pandemic have been ruled unlawful by the High Court. BBC News has more.

The ruling came after two women took Public Health England and the Health Secretary, then Matt Hancock, to court. Dr. Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris said it had caused a “shocking death toll”.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson renewed his apologies for all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.

When Covid hit in early 2020, patients were rapidly discharged into care homes without testing, despite the risk of asymptomatic transmission, with Government documents showing there was no requirement for this until mid-April.

Dr. Gardner and Ms Harris said there had been failures in protecting residents and brought the legal challenge. They partially succeeded in claims against Public Health England and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care.

Speaking outside court, Dr. Gardner said she “believed all along that my father and other residents of care homes were neglected and let down by the Government”.

“The High Court has now vindicated that belief, and our campaign to expose the truth,” she said.

In their judgment, Lord Justice Bean and Mr. Justice Garnham found the decisions of the then Health Secretary to make and maintain a series of policies contained in documents issued on March 17th and 19th and April 2nd 2020 were unlawful.

They ruled this was on the grounds the drafters of those documents failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission, which had been highlighted by Sir Patrick Vallance in a radio interview as early as March 13th.

Sir Patrick told the Today programme that “it’s quite likely that there is some degree of asymptomatic transmission”.

A barrister representing Dr. Gardner, from Sidmouth in Devon, and Ms. Harris, from Medstead in Hampshire, told the court at a hearing in March that more than 20,000 elderly or disabled care home residents died from Covid between March and June 2020 in England and Wales.

Jason Coppel QC also said in a written case outline for the judicial review that the care home population was known to be “uniquely vulnerable” to Covid.

“The Government’s failure to protect it, and positive steps taken by the Government which introduced COVID-19 infection into care homes, represent one of the most egregious and devastating policy failures in the modern era,” he added.

Worth reading in full.

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111 Comments
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JamesFrankton
JamesFrankton
4 years ago

What I find strange is that the courts are now willing to entertain the idea that the politicians got it wrong when the only result is that the relatives will get extra money which I as a taxpayer have to finance. Mr Hancock will not be paying. Why were the judges unwilling to listen to the bigger story when Simon Dolan asked for justice on behalf of all of us? Now Hancock is writing a book. Who gets the profits from that.

lorrinet
lorrinet
4 years ago

Since the ‘pandemic’ began I’ve had better medical treatment than I’ve ever had. The hardest bit is getting past the dragons in GP reception, but once that was achieved, consultant appointments, tests, scans, have all been quite prompt and problem-free. When attending the hospital, in the sparsely-filled waiting area, I’ve had to wait no more than 5 minutes before being called. Tests have been done, results received in good time, further appointments, and dates for surgery – with a wait of no more than four weeks, arranged. Sometimes I feel like I’m a member of the elite class, so good is the care, echoing the level of care I recall from my childhood long ago.

Why should this be? Well, the hospital remains half-empty, nowhere near the capacity of two years ago. It’s possible that once you get ‘in the system’ you’re noticed and attended to, but until then you hardly exist. For instance, for my cataract surgery I waited four weeks, but pre-pandemic, a friend of mine faced a wait of five months, with rapidly-deteriorating eyesight, before eventually going private.

I’m grateful for the promptness of my care, but mystified.

mishmash
mishmash
4 years ago

This is NOT what caused the 30k+ care home deaths in 2020. Those people were discharged to make it look like hospitals were overflowing, theatre and propaganda to create the illusion of a pandemic.
Residents were given ‘frailty assessments’ which put many on the end of life pathway and lethal doses of sedatives like Midazolam. This assessment was an algorithm created in Canada which had the highest number of care home ‘with covid’ deaths in the world.

This story chronicles the efforts of one person to find out how their elderly father really died in 2020. Frailty Assessments. End of Life. Midazolam. Care Home Deaths Cover-Up.

They have lied about everything.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  mishmash

Best post on this whole thread. Cuts through everything to the heart of what went on.

Kornea112
Kornea112
4 years ago

Is there or isn’t there asymptomatic spread of the SARS-2 virus? Lockdowns were started based on this positive assumption. Many of the leading specialists soon debunked this theory. Now we have a ruling that asymptomatic people “may” spread the virus. It is no wonder people are frustrated and fed up. Now we are blaming many deaths based on that assumption.

MrkMtchll
MrkMtchll
4 years ago

and what? who is responsible and how will they be reprimanded: jail time or more likely a promotion, knighthood, or directorship somewhere.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago

But we now know that the PCR test is not fit for purpose and that it can’t detect infection. And we know that it’s highly unlikely that asymptomatic people will spread the infection.

The carelessness and cruelty of all this was wrong on many levels – but ‘testing’? These ‘tests’ are rubbish now and they were rubbish then.

Dave1050
Dave1050
4 years ago

If someone commits an illegal act and people die as a result, surely murder or manslaughter charges should be considered? Why wouldn’t it – what am I missing?

John
John
4 years ago

The action of discharging patients was declared unlawful. Although I am not a lawyer, my feeling is that individual families would have to take civil action against PHE and Matt Hancock or start a class action. The advantage of a civil case is the lower requirement of “on the balance of probabilities”, whereas a criminal case would require “beyond reasonable doubt”. The only evidence would be cause of death on the death certificate, there were no contemporaneous autopsies or inquests.

AHotston
AHotston
4 years ago

Covid was always going to get into care homes and kill a lot of people. That’s the uncomfortable truth. Some people find reality hard to bear and seek solace in court judgements, which is sad, as all it does is enrich lawyers.

RTSC
RTSC
4 years ago

“We got all the big calls right” …… except:

  1. Care Homes
  2. Furlough fraud
  3. The jabs
  4. Closing schools
  5. Focused protection (we didn’t)
  6. Everything else
PatrickF
PatrickF
4 years ago

Everyone falling over themselves to take the Eichmann defense: I was only obeying orders.
The buck stops with no one.

John Dee
John Dee
4 years ago

It does rather beg the question: Were the Health and Safety Executive asleep for two years, or just ‘Working From Home’?

thelightcavalry
thelightcavalry
4 years ago

Why is this case only being reported now? Was there a news blackout?

Dodgy Geezer
Dodgy Geezer
4 years ago

My recollection was that the elderly patients were moved from hospital to make way for the expected massive influx of younger patients.

This was part of the standard pandemic plan which we have had for many years, modelled on the assumption that a ‘Spanish Flu’ virus might strike again, with a massive death toll.

If this were to happen, the plan was to sacrifice the elderly in order to save as many young as possible – an approach which, as an elderly person, I have no problems with. IF we had a high-fatality epidemic attacking everyone, this is a justifiable response.

There were two problems here. One was that Covid turned out NOT to be a particularly high-fatality disease, and was mainly a lethal threat to the elderly. And the second was that we changed tactics in mid-stream and went for full lockdown while developing a vaccination cure. Which turned out to fail – but we did not know that at the time.

So we killed a lot of the elderly population for no gain. But we could only see that in retrospect. I think that once the timings of our understanding of Covid are appreciated, this court decision will… Read more »

vivaldi
vivaldi
4 years ago
Reply to  Dodgy Geezer

However, SARS CoV 2 had been downgraded mid March to a non HCID so they knew then how the previous plans could be/ needed to be adapted. The ‘retrospective’ ‘argument’ allows the cabal to evade full accountability. Voices such as J. Ionaniddes had called it a similar to a bad flu season in the spring of 2020…..such voices were ignored because the ‘script’ was being followed.

vivaldi
vivaldi
4 years ago
Reply to  vivaldi

…apologies for my post…superfluous to requirements!

rtj1211
rtj1211
4 years ago

Stop giving apologies Johnson, take the punishments you are due like a leader.

ComeTheRevolution
ComeTheRevolution
4 years ago

Throwing the elderly out of hospital when their own website https://www.gov.uk/guidance/high-consequence-infectious-diseases-hcid#status-of-covid-19 characterises the nonexistent SARSCOV2 as “LOW MORTALITY” ie there was no emergency and they knew it – throwing them out was part of the scenery to the COVID operation, a bit like the useless NIghtingale Hospitals they knew they would never need. It was all about spreading covid terrorism. It was a bluff.

The British Government is a defacto terrorist organisation which has deceived and conned the British public in the most profound and evil manner. They are disgusting and this website is being way too kind to them .Old school mates looking out for each other. Makes me sick.

tree
tree
4 years ago

Get a grip

Superunknown
Superunknown
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

Terrorism Act as defined by the CPS

https://www.cps.gov.uk/crime-info/terrorism

Several instances are listed, which do confirm the UK government have breached the act.

Moderate Radical
Moderate Radical
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

Get an argument.

He’s orf ‘is tree, what.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago

With any luck, (s)he’s an ash – which means (s)he’s doomed. Every cloud, and all that…..

vivaldi
vivaldi
4 years ago

There is an important distinction between asymptomatic and presymptomatic transmission- they should not be used interchangeably. Presymptomatic is when a person may be starting with a sore throat or headache or stuffy nose and may be capable of infecting others, may even have a raised temperature. Asymptomatic is without symptoms and therefore it is impossible to transmit to others. The old ejected in to care homes en masse were not distinguished between the 2 categories…..there must have been many who were presymptomatic and those transmitted the virus, those without symptoms did not but were likely to be receptacles for SARS CoV-2.
As Draper says below (a quicker summation than this) this ruling from the Queens Bench can be used to the government’s advantage and perpetuate testing and masks and any other NPIs such as the vaxx pass.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  vivaldi

Excellent clarification – if only our dissembling Government Experts had a half decent grasp of the subjects they claimed to be “expert” in!

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Except the clarification is wrong.

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  vivaldi

Obviously you are wrong about asymptomatic transmission being impossible.

Doom Slayer
Doom Slayer
4 years ago
Reply to  vivaldi

Plus it can be several days from point of infection to onset of symptoms. You may technically be able to test positive during this period but not be infectious. In effect people may have been dischanrged during this period and then went on to get symptoms in the care home. There have been many studies into asymptomatic transmission and it is a fallacy that it is a significant source of spread. The biggest study in china didnt find any evidence (yes i know china but you would have thought they would want to support the asymptomatic transfer narrative). Even fauci admits symptomatic people are the drivers of epidemics of this nature. Pre symptomatic is low single figure % contribution from what i have read. One of the differences between sars 1 and 2 is that it seems you are most infectious around the point of onset of symptoms with 2 rather then after a few days of symptoms with 1.

Of course the reason the clowns think there is so much asymptomatic transmission is because about a 1/3 of people were testing positive and not getting any symptoms due to the ridiculous cycle rates of the pcr tests and… Read more »

vivaldi
vivaldi
4 years ago
Reply to  Doom Slayer

Yes…the mass testing across all age ranges supports the narrative of asymptomatic spread, which is critical for the unnecessary NPIs.

Draper233
Draper233
4 years ago

A dangerous ruling.

On the basis that it gives credence to the lies of asymptomatic spread and the effectiveness of PCR testing.

I think I can see how the inquiry is going to go on this basis – measures should have been a lot harsher and applied earlier.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Draper233

Yeadon says that “Asymptomatic Spreading” has never before been suggested in an air born virus.

The fact is that those expelled from Hospitals did have symptoms or didn’t have Covid.

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

Yes but he has shown himself to be wrong on many occasions.

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  Draper233

Just chant lies, lies, lies.

It makes clear that you should be ignored.

DanClarke
DanClarke
4 years ago

Sending vulnerable and critically ill back to care homes from hospital where GP’s refused to visit, was inhumane. Will the perpetrators be prosecuted now or did the Coronavirus act give them immunity

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

“GPs refused to visit” More questions to answer.

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  DanClarke

Careful. You are disagreeing with most on here that say asymptomatic transmission is impossible.

Moderate Radical
Moderate Radical
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

You are disagreeing with most on here that say asymptomatic transmission is impossible.

I have not seen one person on here say asymptomatic transmission is ‘impossible’, nor have I seen any scientist or academic say this. Either you’re a liar or you’re too dense to understand the argument, which is that asymptomatic transmission is not sufficient to drive a pandemic.

You have inadvertently exposed your sheer ignorance. You’ve had two years to understand our arguments, and like the rest of the cultists you just haven’t bothered.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago

She’s not a ”cultist” – I doubt very much if any cult would have her, as she doesn’t seem at all bright. She’s just an agente provocateuse – and therefore not worth responding to.

RW
RW
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

The reality of the situation is as follows: We don’t know if it can happen. And have – so far – no way of determining this for real world situations. Even more importantly: It doesn’t matter. Given our current level of knowledge, the only way to prevent transmission is to keep all people in permanent isolation from each other. And not some fishy shit like what they’re doing in China but real isolation, ie, shared nothing: Everybody needs his own water and air supply which must be physically separate from all others.

It follows that we have to build a few billion single person spaceships using some yet-to-be-invented technology to create water, air and food out of some sort of biologically inert raw material and force everyone to remain in his for the remainder of his life. As that’s clearly impractial, a better solution would be: Kill all people to prevent them from getting infected with Sars-CoV2. Anything short of that doesn’t work and hence, it must be unlawful.

Of course, the idea that the best way to deal with a usually harmless infection is Cull all people!, ie, the avian flu method, is probably not what those high court… Read more »

Martin Frost
Martin Frost
4 years ago

It is ironic that the people we were supposedly protecting had their lives cut short by the very same strategy that was designed (or so we were told) to keep them safe. Anyone for another pointless lockdown?

tom171uk
tom171uk
4 years ago

I believe the headless chickens were focused entirely on the sacred NHS with no compassion for individuals and no risk assessment. They were booting out bed blockers to clear the stage for the blessed drama queens to perform.

stewart
stewart
4 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

So not only were they reckless, but intentionally so.

Imagine any of us could just act recklessly on the grounds that it we thought it might serve the greater good – and no need to demonstrate it, mind you, just have the gut feeling it’s the right thing – and then if someone died as a result, we could just go “oops, sorry, that was a mistake” and that was that.

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

It was just panic and stupidity.

Superunknown
Superunknown
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

And you fell for it

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago

Midazolam Matt,
Says fancy that!
I couldn’t care less about your mum,
‘Cos Gina let me squeeze her bum!

“Matt Hancock ‘affair’: Aide Gina Coladangelo’s brother has top job at company with NHS contracts”
https://news.sky.com/story/matt-hancock-affair-aide-gina-coladangelos-relative-has-top-job-at-company-with-nhs-contracts-12341789

grope.jpg
David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Posed for the cameras?

We need yet another Independent Enquiry this time into Hancock’s financial ‘affairs’.

RW
RW
4 years ago

So, the judges basically ruled that it’s warranted to imprison healthy people for up to 14 days unless they can show a recent, negative Sars-CoV2 test?

The document could, for example, have said that where an asymptomatic patient, other than one who has tested negative, is admitted to a care home, he or she should, so far as practicable, be kept apart from other residents for up to 14 days.

Because Vallance expressed the opinion that Healthy people who didn’t test negative could spread diseases? Seems the historic Enemies of the people headline wasn’t that much off.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  RW

Vallance has much explaining to do – he should be interogated by Mike Yeadon.We need a Covid Court .

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  David Beaton

You really should not idolise Yeadon. It’s quite pathetic given the fact that he is an idiot.

Moderate Radical
Moderate Radical
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

You really should not idolise Yeadon.

No one is idolising Yeadon. Do you even understand terms and their definitions?

You’re hysterical, what.

It’s quite pathetic given the fact that he is an idiot.

Now you’ve gone to the opposite extreme of that which you accuse others. Were you born this dense or were you trained well?

It’s quite pathetic…

Yes, dearie, it is astonishingly pathetic. Get a hold of yourself, sausage.

chris-ds
chris-ds
4 years ago

I thought it was the NHS that bounced the old back to their care homes once they’d caught covid after their unnecessarily long stays in hospitals.

I didn’t realise it was the governments fault.

was this when the government wanted beds for sick covid patients?

will there be a court case from the families of those killed because they where put on ventilators?

how about those killed as they where told to take an unproven jab?

CynicalRealist
CynicalRealist
4 years ago
Reply to  chris-ds

Nothing is ever the fault of the sainted NHS – get banging those pans for ‘Our NHS’!

Star
Star
4 years ago

It was deliberate mass murder.
To think a civil “judicial review” resolves this is ludicrous.
But wait – according to the BBC report on the judgement, “Prime Minister Enver Hoxha Boris Johnson renewed his apologies for all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.”

In other news, whoever it was who gave the story to the Daily Mail about Angela Rayner crossing and uncrossing her legs “provocatively” in the Commons, was the source of the story by any chance an obese guy in his late 50s with blond hair that he doesn’t comb? He should be on the suspect list, no?

huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
4 years ago

It’s quite funny – guilty as a result of their own evidence:

Asymptomatic transmission.

“It’s a cracker!”

Star
Star
4 years ago
Reply to  huxleypiggles

“A coronavirus pandemic could be ‘quite useful’ in clearing bed blocking in hospitals by killing off patients, a leading former nurse has claimed, while admitting her remarks would be seen as ‘horrific’. Professor June Andrews said Covid-19 could help hospitals with delayed discharges because these people would be ‘taken out of the system’.“

She also said in self-commentary that she was only “ripping off the plaster”.

You can watch the video here.

She’s ‘ard, you see – she faces reality. She knows the coalface.

I feel so sorry for anybody who has a character like June Andrews anywhere near them when they are dying.

She is called an “ex”-“nurse” in the media to hide the fact that she was a very senior figure at the time she said what she said.

Incidentally as soon as I mentioned in another web discussion place that people known to be infected with SARSCoV2 were being sent back to care homes I got permanently banned.

For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
4 years ago

Is there any actual evidence that asymptomatic transmission had any bearing on this? I suspect another excuse to cover their increasingly naked backsides.

RedhotScot
RedhotScot
4 years ago

No such thing.

BeBopRockSteady
BeBopRockSteady
4 years ago

If would be accepted as a thing based on Vallence’s comments.

Now, the government could have made the defence that it has been over stated, that there is little evidence. Bring forth the German woman who was the whole basis for asymptomatic transmission (subsequently found not to be the case after NEJM had already published details of the case).

However, such a defence would have been impossible for the government. The whole scam to lock people down was based on the asymptomatic hoodwink. They may have ended up winning the battle but losing a much bigger war if they’d gone down that route.

What we are witnessing though is government ministers caught in their own lies.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago

The web of Lies is now so thick it is difficult to disentangle one from another.

tree
tree
4 years ago

So in your mistaken belief that asymptomatic infection does not exist, you are actually defending the government.

Are you sure that’s what you mean?

Seems you are confused.

For a fist full of roubles
For a fist full of roubles
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

And of course you can point to the evidence of asymptomatic (as opposed to presymptomatic) infection.

stewart
stewart
4 years ago

That’s all very well.

But here is the problem I have.

If I do something unlawful that leads to someone’s death, the chances are I am going to end up behind bars.

We all know that no one involved in this decision will end up behind bars for it.

And this is a very fundamental problem we have in society. It’s just all too easy for Matt Hancock or Boris Johnson or whoever to make rules and give orders to the population knowing that if what they do somehow goes wrong, the worst thing that will happen to them is that they’ll lose their job.

If people in authority had to face serious repercussions for the bad consequences of their actions, the state would be far more subdued and we would all be much freer.

The constant encroachment of the state into our lives is driven by a system that allows people in authority that act with impunity.

RedhotScot
RedhotScot
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

The argument is made that were politicians to be held responsible for their actions no one would become a politician.

However, businessmen run large organisations where decisions are made every day that affect lives, and they are held responsible for their actions.

tom171uk
tom171uk
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

If no-one became a politician the rest of us would be a lot better off.

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

Perhaps we should have some anonymous folk on a shady website make the laws.

Milo
Milo
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

is that really the best you can do tree???

your employers are overpaying you for crap like that

Dodgy Geezer
Dodgy Geezer
4 years ago
Reply to  tree

No change there, then?

tree
tree
4 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

How many can you name that have been prosecuted for corporate manslaughter?

It never happens. They don’t get held to account either. Often a lower down scapegoat is sacrifices.

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

How about some ‘Common Law Constables’ from the Guardians300 go and arrest Matt Hancock… they have, allegedly, murdered thousands. Isn’t there something in the Magna Carta about that?!

Come on, ‘constables’, show a leg!

Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
4 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

I can’t help thinking these people who call themselves ‘Common Law Constables’ after attending Guardians300 ‘seminars’ are really mostly interested in trying to wriggle out of their own parking fines and knowing what smart thing to say when the goons from Capita turn up at their doorstep to ask if they have a TV licence.
“I do not consent”… or some old bollocks like that.

Alter Ego
Alter Ego
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

I agree with every line you have written, except this one:

We all know that no one involved in this decision will end up behind bars for it.

We don’t know that yet. That’s what we suspect will be the case. But it must not be. This is our existential crisis, because:

If people in authority had to face serious repercussions for the bad consequences of their actions, the state would be far more subdued and we would all be much freer.

The constant encroachment of the state into our lives is driven by a system that allows people in authority that act with impunity.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

But that depends upon unbiased courts and unnobbled judges/juries – as well as those willing to press charges in the first place.

David Beaton
David Beaton
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Good post.

Moderate Radical
Moderate Radical
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

Spot on. Absolutely spot on.

Dave1050
Dave1050
4 years ago
Reply to  stewart

They should be put on trial. I think it could be done. No one thought initially they were going to be held accountable for parties, but they are now. We need to start talking about this. We’ll see who spills the beans on their colleagues.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago
Reply to  Dave1050

Trials involve lawyers and judges. Who’d want to stick their heads over the parapet? They’ve seen what happened to people who spoke out of turn in other countries, judges included. I doubt there’d be a court that would convict any one of these cruel, self-serving, arrogant b*ggers.

JASA
JASA
4 years ago

“….patients were rapidly discharged into care homes without testing, despite the risk of asymptomatic transmission, with Government documents showing there was no requirement for this until mid-April.”

Asymptomatic transmission for this and respiratory diseases in general was not significant. They were discharged whether ill or not, i.e. presenting symptoms or not. That is the scandal together with the issue of midazolam. Despite slamming the government, this ruling is still playing along with the narrative.

J4mes
J4mes
4 years ago

This is horse sh!t and just supports the covid fraud narrative same way as Partygate.

As long as DS ignores the other charges that have been brought against the government regarding midazolam administration, I’ll suspect them of being false opposition to this tyranny.

Banjones
Banjones
4 years ago
Reply to  J4mes

I agree. To blather on about ‘testing’ is just a red herring.

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