Covid inquiry hears of care home 'slaughter'

A civil servant's assertion that there was a "generational slaughter within care homes" in the early days of the pandemic is a phrase that "chimes with the experience of thousands of our families", the Covid inquiry has heard.

Pete Weatherby, barrister for the campaign group Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK, said the phrase might seem an exaggeration but it highlighted issues the inquiry must address.

His opening statement came on the first day of the sixth part of the Covid inquiry which will focus on the impact of the pandemic on care services for elderly and disabled people.

The government has said it is committed to learning lessons from the inquiry.

Mr Donaldson's evidence also describes "complete chaos" in the Department of Health and Social Care when he started working there in April 2020, soon after the start of the pandemic.

Nearly 46,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales between March 2020 and January 2022, many of them in the early weeks of the pandemic.

Key questions the families hope the inquiry will answer include why the decision was made in March 2020 to rapidly discharge some hospital patients into care homes.

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Source: BBC News, 30 June 2025