'Spread like wildfire': Covid Inquiry's 'painful' finding about care homes should shock us all

The chief executive of Scottish Care describes the Covid Inquiry’s latest report as a ‘sobering and at times deeply painful read’

Published 21st Oct 2026, 06:00 BST

The scandal over the discharging of elderly patients from hospitals into care homes when the Covid pandemic hit has been well documented.

However, Covid Inquiry chair Heather Hallett’s finding, that both the Scottish and UK governments “created an environment in care settings where the virus could spread like wildfire", was genuinely shocking. The first duty of any government is to protect the lives of its citizens and, on that, they both singularly failed.

It seems the problem was substantially worse in Scotland than in England. Here, some 47 per cent of deaths attributed to Covid occurred in care homes, compared with 30 per cent south of the Border.

‘Quite the opposite was true’

Scientists had been warning for years that the world was overdue for a pandemic, yet it appears our politicians were caught somewhat unawares. As they scrambled to make sure hospitals would be able to cope with the influx of cases, vulnerable elderly people found themselves being pushed out.

“The claim that a so-called protective ring had been thrown around care homes right from the start was unfounded. Quite the opposite was true,” Hallett said. “During the crucial weeks of March and early April 2020, the overriding focus of the UK government and devolved administrations was protecting hospitals. The mantra of protecting the NHS sometimes came at the expense of the users and providers of care homes.”

The inquiry’s latest report was described as a “sobering and at times deeply painful read” by Donald Macaskill, chief executive of industry body Scottish Care. He said the “clearest lesson” was that social care must never again be regarded as “peripheral or secondary” and should instead be treated as “critical national infrastructure”. “It sustains the lives, rights, wellbeing and dignity of hundreds of thousands of people and is an indispensable part of Scotland’s social fabric.”

At some point in the future, there will be another pandemic. When it comes, our governments must be much better prepared with a comprehensive plan designed to save the lives of all Scotland’s citizens and ensure the state’s actions do the exact opposite of creating conditions for the disease to “spread like wildfire” – least of all in care homes.