Yahoo News Coronavirus: Key question the government didn't answer in Wednesday's press conference
The government is under increasing pressure over its response to coronavirus infections in care homes.
The subject dominated Wednesday’s daily press briefing in Downing Street, which was led by health secretary Matt Hancock.
It came as England’s coronavirus death toll in care homes reached 1,440, according to Care England.
Sky News reporter Nick Martin, who said he has spent the last few days in care homes, claimed staff are facing “pushback” when they try and send elderly residents to hospital.
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At the same time, he said there is evidence of “eagerness” to discharge those elderly patients who are in hospital in order to clear beds.
Martin asked Hancock if this was policy – but the health secretary didn’t answer.
Here is the full wording of the question
“Nurses are telling me, not just in this home [where he had spent Wednesday] but other homes, that they are getting some pushback when it comes to trying to send elderly residents into hospital for treatment.
“At the other end of the scale, there seems to be – and we have evidence to show this – an eagerness to discharge elderly from hospitals. One care home was told it was policy to clear beds. It looks like the elderly are being cleared out of hospitals.
“Is that policy?”
Here is Hancock’s response
“The decision to admit somebody into hospital must be a clinical decision based on individual circumstances, not a blanket rule.
“On the discharge, of course the best place for people who clinically are able to be discharged is to get them home. Of course there is a policy that when people are ready for discharge, that they should be discharged. That’s the nature of hospitals.
“But it’s got to be made on that individual clinical diagnosis of what’s best for that individual patient.”
The health secretary, however, did firmly deny another reporter’s suggestion that the lives of younger people had been prioritised at the expense of those in care homes, and that people had died unnecessarily.
