Matt Hancock disputes claim he rejected care home Covid advice

Matt Hancock, the former Health Secretary, has denied allegations that he disregarded expert advice regarding Covid testing for individuals entering care homes during the initial stages of the pandemic. 

According to leaked WhatsApp messages obtained by the Daily Telegraph, Mr Hancock was informed in April 2020 that “all going into care homes” should be tested. However, the government’s official directive later only required tests for those who had left hospitals. 

A spokesperson for Mr Hancock dismissed the messages as “doctored” and refuted the claim that Mr Hancock had disregarded clinical advice. 

Journalist Isabel Oakeshott, who assisted Mr Hancock in writing his book, Pandemic Diaries, provided copies of the messages to the Telegraph. 

In one message dated 14 April, Mr Hancock allegedly stated that Sir Chris Whitty, England’s Chief Medical Officer, had conducted a review of the evidence and recommended: “testing of all going into care homes, and segregation while awaiting result.”

The message came just one day before the publication of Covid-19: Our Action Plan for Adult Social Care – a government document that set out plans to keep the care system functioning during the pandemic. 

Mr Hancock said the advice represented a “good positive step” and that “we must put into the doc”, to which an aide responded that he had sent the request “to action”.

But later the same day, Mr Hancock messaged again saying he would rather “leave out” a commitment to test everyone entering care homes from the community and “just commit to test & isolate ALL going into care from hospital”.

“I do not think the community commitment adds anything and it muddies the waters,” he said.

The care plan, which was released on 15 April, stated that the government would establish a protocol for testing all residents before they are admitted into care homes, beginning with individuals being discharged from hospitals. 

However, it only indicated that the government would “move to” a policy of testing all individuals entering care homes from the community. 

According to the Telegraph, the guidance that required testing for all individuals entering care homes was not implemented until 14 August.

‘Texts are doctored’

According to a representative for Mr Hancock, the former Health Secretary readily embraced the advice from the Chief Medical Officer on 14 April that Covid testing was necessary for individuals entering care homes.

“Later that day he convened an operational meeting on delivering testing for care homes where he was advised it was not currently possible to test everyone entering care homes, which he also accepted,” the spokesperson said.

“Matt concluded that the testing of people leaving hospital for care homes should be prioritised because of the higher risks of transmission, as it wasn’t possible to mandate everyone going into care homes got tested.”

The spokesperson alleged that the Telegraph tampered with the messages by omitting a line from a text sent by one of Mr Hancock’s aides. The line reportedly indicates that a meeting was held during which advice on feasibility was provided.

The statement added: “By omitting this, the messages imply Matt simply overruled clinical advice. That is categorically untrue. He went as far as was possible, as fast as possible, to expand testing and save lives.”

The statement said the appropriate place to analyse what happened during the pandemic was the public inquiry, which is now underway and due to begin hearing evidence in June. 

Figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, from March 2020 to January 2022, there were 43,256 deaths involving Covid-19 in care homes in England.

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