'INCOMPETENT OR RECKLESS ERRORS'

Care homes a 'generational slaughter' site | Covid probe: Deaths sparked by Tory failures

- MARTIN BAGOT

THE appalling treatment of the elderly during Covid was laid bare yesterday amid claims major Tory failures led to many dying alone and afraid in care homes.

Civil servant Alasdair Donaldson revealed he arrived on secondment at the Department of Health and Social Care to find the system in chaos, as sick pensioners were discharged from hospitals into care without being tested for the killer virus.

Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice UK’s barrister Pete Weatherby KC quoted testimony from Donaldson, who said the civil service “catastrophically let down the people it was supposed to serve”, amid “incompetent or reckless errors”.

Weatherby told the latest stage of the inquiry into the pandemic that crippled the nation from 2020: