Legal claims issued in High Court against Health Secretary over care home and hospital COVID-19 deaths

Families of those who died in care homes and hospitals in the early weeks of the Covid-19 pandemic have issued legal claims in the High Court against the Health Secretary, individual care homes and hospital trusts, law firm Leigh Day has revealed.

The families argue there was a breach of Articles 2, 8 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and are bringing their claims under section 6 of the Human Rights Act 1998 – Acts of Public Bodies.

The cases concern deaths in the early stages of the pandemic in 2020, when patients infected with Covid-19 were being transferred from hospitals into care homes.

Represented by Leigh Day, the families have filed claims for damages for “loss of life, personal injuries, pain and suffering, anxiety, distress, and feelings of injustice”.

The families say breaches of human rights occurred through the State’s failure to comply with its obligations to:

• protect the right to life,
• respect the right to private and family life
• protect the right not to be discriminated against

Leigh Day said: “The families will argue the State failed to protect their rights through failures to publish procedures, appropriate guidance, policies and/ or rules to be applied by operators of residential and/ or nursing care homes, healthcare settings and hospitals.”

The claims are being brought in light of the Gardner judgment which concluded that the Department of Health March Discharge Policy and the April Admissions Guidance “simply failed to take into account the highly relevant consideration of the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from asymptomatic transmission”.

The families are represented by Leigh Day partner Emma Jones and associate solicitor Beatrice Morgan.

Jones said: “We had hoped to try to progress our arguments without being forced to start legal action, but unfortunately not all of the defendants would agree to extending the deadline for formally launching the cases.
 
“As a result we have taken the necessary step of issuing these claims to protect the positions of our clients and the loved ones they have lost. You cannot underestimate the impact of the tragic loss of life, losing a loved one in such harrowing circumstances, has had on our clients. We hope that through bringing these cases there will be a full and thorough investigation into the deaths, which might help our clients to feel they have obtained justice for their loved ones.”
 
Beatrice Morgan said: “Our clients believe that the guidance issued by the Health Secretary in the early weeks of the pandemic led to thousands of unnecessary deaths. Many feel strongly that rather than trying to protect older people during that time, the guidance put their loved ones at an avoidable risk of harm.”

The Department of Health and Social Care has said it cannot comment on ongoing legal proceedings.

A spokesperson said: “Our thoughts are with all those who lost loved ones during the pandemic.

“Throughout the pandemic, our aim was to protect the public from the threat to health posed by Covid and we specifically sought to safeguard care home residents based on the best information at the time.

“We provided billions of pounds to support the sector, including on infection and prevention control, free PPE and priority vaccinations - with the vast majority of eligible care staff and residents receiving vaccinations.”

Lottie Winson