Winchmore Hill care home at centre of investigation into Covid-19 deaths

On 20th April the Enfield Independent reported the death from Covid-19 of Sonya Kaygan, a 26-year old employee of the Elizabeth Care Home in Highlands Village, Winchmore Hill. Sonya's death prompted an investigation by the Reuters news agency centered on Elizabeth Lodge and other local care homes, whose highly disturbing findings were published on 5th May. Unravelling which organisations, whether public or private, and which individuals bear responsibility for the tragic outcomes described won't be straightforward, but the report leaves no room for doubt that some absolutely collossal mistakes have been made, and also raises the question of whether neglect of care home residents was a tragic error or a deliberate policy decision by the government.

At the time the report was published, Elizabeth Lodge had recorded one of the highest death tolls in an English care home - "at least 25 residents since the start of March, of whom at least 17 were linked to the coronavirus". The reporters estimate that, as of 5th May, the pandemic had resulted in at least 12,700 excess deaths in care homes. These were the consequence of a number of failures, including failure to test residents and staff, wholly inadequate provision of PPE, and the discharge of patients from hospitals with Covid-19 patients into care homes without testing. Despite clear awareness of the potential for care homes to spread infections, guidance issued by Public Health England on 25th February stated that it "remains very unlikely that people receiving care in a care home or the community will become infected." On 20th March England’s deputy chief medical officer declared that there was a "perfectly adequate supply of PPE" for care workers and the supply pressures have been "completely resolved" - a statement that could hardly have been further from the truth.

These are just a few of the many failings described in the Reuters report, which is "based on documents from government agencies seen by Reuters, interviews with five leaders of local authorities and eight care home managers."