THE government knew it had prioritised the NHS “to the detriment of care homes” early in the pandemic, official documents show.

Former health secretary Matt Hancock told Parliament it had thrown a “protective ring around care homes” in the first lockdown.

But an internal review by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC), dated September 2020, revealed the “operational response centre” (ORC) at the heart of the government’s Covid response had prioritised hospital capacity at the cost of adult social care (ASC).

Released following a freedom of information request by OpenDemocracy, it said: “The unprecedented speed with which this new virus emerged inevitably focused attention primarily on how the NHS would be able to cope. 

“This prioritisation of the protection of hospital capacity, without adequate acknowledgement of key interdependencies, was to the detriment of ASC.”

The first wave of the pandemic saw almost 27,000 “excess deaths” in care homes in England and Wales compared with the 2015-19 average.

Age UK charity director Caroline Abrahams told the Morning Star there was “no doubt that care home residents were not protected as they should have been” when the pandemic struck. 

She added: “There are many lessons to be learned from this catastrophe, among them the need for social care, and indeed older people, to be better represented in Whitehall. 

“We look forward to the inquiry looking in detail at what happened in care homes and why, though it’s regrettable it won’t begin doing so until much later in the process.

“Above all, we must never leave older people so exposed to such enormous risks again.”

The so-called Lessons Learned review document also revealed that Mr Hancock struggled to use Foundry, the controversial database software provided to the NHS by digital giant Palantir.

It said NHS England created the data-sharing platform to give a better overview of the range of available DHSC datasets, but that “staff (and the Secretary of State) experienced access issues and its utility as a central resource was limited.”

A DHSC spokesperson said: “We have always said there are lessons to be learnt from the pandemic and we are committed to learning from the Covid-19 inquiry’s findings which will play a key role in informing the government’s planning and preparations for the future.

“We will consider all recommendations made to the department in full.”