• The Government must urgently release details of Covid deaths in Care Homes and support their staff.
• Britain needs a National Care Service.
• With thousands dying Parliament is “missing in action”.
This report from the Liverpool Echo describes how 10 frail and vulnerable people have died in one care home in the city’s Wavertree district. The home’s dedicated brave carers battling daily tragedy say“We’re all scared‘.
https://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/were-scared-brave-carers-battling-18057143
The death toll at Wavertree’s Oak Springs is truly shocking and it is worse than absurd that all deaths from Coronavirus- and especially those from Care Homes – are not counted in the published figures.
Their deaths are diminished by being out of sight and out of mind but not for their grieving loved ones.
Prisons should be told to publish their figures and the only way in which we will be able to assess the numbers of others who are dying at home ( and who have not been formally diagnosed ) is to compare the equivalent numbers from preceding years by age group. Those figures should be regular published too.
If, a National Care Service emerged from the wreckage of Covid19 it would represent a gain amongst so much loss, comparable to the gain of the National Health Service in 1945.
Although, in the present circumstances of lockdown, it is clearly impossible for Parliament to be physically convened, it is nonetheless vital that Government is held to account.
Ministers should be called to answer by both Houses of Parliament. Oral Questioning should be made available online.
Over a week ago I wrote to the House authorities asking that Members should be allowed to table Written Questions – as they can when the House is sitting. This requires no new technology and it should and could be done immediately.
At the outset of this pandemic I suggested that a Joint Commission of both Houses should be established, comprising Select Committee Chairs and senior backbench Parliamentarians, able to articulate the concerns and suggestions of their colleagues. It’s high time this happened.
For now, as thousands die, Parliament is missing in action.
