THE JUSTICE Secretary has admitted the NHS was prioritised over care homes at the start of the coronavirus outbreak.
Robert Buckland today claimed the Government had to make a decision when it came to prioritising testing.
Appearing on Sky News, Mr Buckland became the first minister to admit a choice was made to focus on the NHS and hospitals.
He explained: “We rightly emphasised the importance of making sure that our NHS services and our hospitals were places that could continue to admit patients and wouldn’t be incubators of the disease.
“We achieved that. We protected our NHS.”
Asked if the decision was bad for care homes he replied: “We needed to make a choice about testing and we did decide to focus upon the NHS.”
The senior minister was being asked about recent figures which showed 40 per cent of all coronavirus deaths were in care homes.
He said: “Clearly there were huge issues and we’ve seen a great tragedy in our care homes which is a matter of huge regret.
“I think every country in the world will look back and say there are things we could have done differently.”
Despite the confession, Mr Buckland insisted it was “absolutely essential” that the NHS was put first and foremost at the start of the outbreak.
It comes amid a furious row over care homes, with the Prime Minister today challenged again on the issue by Sir Keir Starmer.
Clashing at PMQs, the Labour leader bashed Matt Hancock’s claim that the Government threw a “protective ring” around care homes.
He pointed out before guidance changed in April patients were being discharged into care homes without even being tested, even if they were showing symptoms.
Piers Morgan yesterday slamming the crisis as a “stain on the country and government”.
The Good Morning Britain host criticised Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the “brazen lie” that care homes had been given a “protective shield” when no extra measures had been put in place.
Piers highlighted the more than 22,000 deaths in care homes amid the coronavirus crisis.
He said: “You can understand why people are angry and aghast when they see our leaders claim completely falsely that there was a lockdown in care homes before the public and claiming there was a protective shield put around care homes when in fact, it was the complete opposite.
“Thousands of elderly vulnerable people, many with Covid-19, were sent from hospitals into care homes at the direction of the UK government.
“As a result over 22,000 people have died.
“This is a stain on this country, it is a stain on this government.”
