, Labour’s Shadow Minister
for Social Care, responding to admitting on Sky News that
the Government made a choice to prioritise the NHS for testing
over care homes, said:
“This is the clearest admission yet that ministers did not
give care homes the protection they needed at the start of this
pandemic.
“Social care and the NHS are both equally important in the
fight against this virus and are inextricably linked. One cannot
be prioritised above the other.
“Ministers must give social care the resources, support and
attention it needs to stop the spread of this awful
virus.”
Ends
Notes to editors
Transcript Sky News Kay Burley @ Breakfast (time stamp
07:07:39):
Kay Burley: So you’re saying,
that you focused, in your opinion quite rightly on the National
Health Service, at the… to the detriment of care
homes?
: Well
look, I think we needed to make a choice about testing and we did
decide to focus upon the NHS. I think the issue with care homes
is that we’ve got many different providers, many different
settings. There have mercifully been many case of care homes that
have stayed infection-free but sadly far too many cases of
infection and then death. I think every country in the world will
look back and say there’s things we could have done
differently.
Kay Burley: Okay – but it was
Government policy to focus on the National Health Service – I’m
not criticising, I’m not saying it’s right or wrong, I’m asking
what the policy was – it was to focus on the National Health
Service first and foremost?
: That’s
right and I think that was absolutely essential. And I think now
is not the time to blame people. I think that would be totally
counterproductive.
