Piers Morgan has branded Prime Minister Boris Johnson ‘disgusting’ after he placed the blame for a high amount of Covid-19 deaths on care homes.
It has been confirmed that 20,000 residents died from the virus after a large amount of patients were discharged from hospital and sent back into the care homes without a coronavirus test.
And now, Mr Johnson appears to have blamed the care home sector for the tragic deaths when he said on the Andrew Marr Show: ‘One of the things the crisis has shown is we need to think about how we organise our social care package better and how we make sure we look after people better who are in social care.
‘We discovered too many care homes didn’t really follow the procedures in the way that they could have but we’re learning lessons the whole time.
‘Most important is to fund them properly… but we will also be looking at ways to make sure the care sector long term is properly organised and supported.’
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While presenting his breakfast show, Good Morning Britain, Piers criticised the Prime Minister over his accusation.
‘The government instructed 25,000 elderly people to be sent back to care homes without any testing for Covid-19 to see if they’re negative,’ the 55-year-old said.
‘And then, an epidemic started in care homes and over 20,000 people in care homes died. And apparently that’s the care homes’ fault, says the prime minister.’
The controversial journalist pressed: ‘It’s all their fault, not the government’s fault for not applying mandatory testing to those who won’t go back, no, it was the fault of the care home who had no PPE to protect them so a large number of care home workers died in this process.
‘I think it’s honestly disgusting. What we’re seeing now is the blame game.’
‘The Prime Minister and Matt Hancock and other ministers are starting to shift the narrative away from themselves and their decisions to other people like Public Health England, NHS England the care homes – everyone but the government is going to end up being blamed for this by the government.’
He then noted how the care home workers must be feeling after hearing Mr Johnson’s words.
‘Imagine if you worked in a care home,’ Piers fumed. ‘Imagine if you heard that from the Prime Minister when you know there was a specific instruction to send elderly people out of hospital back into the care homes without testing, and you know that’s the instruction.
‘And we know of care homes that were instructed to take people who had Covid.’
Dr Hilary Jones was on hand to give his take on the care home epidemic and stated it was not the care homes fault.
‘I think it’s in 2018, there was the sickness flu pandemic preparation plan that was looked at and there was specific advice to give care homes direction to prevent cross infection – none of that advice was ever followed up,’ the GP explained.
‘It was a waste of money because the advice was never listened to. And then to blame the care home workers, it’s just extra ordinary.’
He added: ‘They wanted to clear the hospitals out and make as many beds available. But they sacrificed as a result the residents in care homes.
‘It wasn’t the care homes that did it wrong it was the advice given by the government and the guidelines and the severe underfunding.’
Good Morning Britain continues weekdays at 6am on ITV.
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