Hallett Covid inquiry: Care homes were left unregulated, says woman whose mother died
A woman whose mother died from Covid in a care home in 2021 says the facilities were effectively left “unregulated” during the pandemic.
Portadown woman Martina Ferguson was speaking after Baroness Heather Hallett’s report on government responses to Covid in Northern Ireland, as part of the UK-wide inquiry.
Martina's mother Ursula Derry died in January 2021 from Covid.
Martina was unable to visit her mother in a care home for nine months during lockdown. Ursula later died in hospital - where Martina was the only one of her six siblings allowed to visit her.
She later became a spokeswoman for NI Covid Bereaved Families for Justice Campaign.
Over 1000 care home residents had died in NI by November 2021 after contracting Covid-19.
Ms Fergusaon told the News Letter that the publication of the report was stressful.
"It always kind of retraumatizes, you know, people because of what we've experienced during the pandemic.”
"When we look at care homes, I feel they were left unregulated”.
She says Stormont issued Care Partner guidance in September 2020 to facilitate relatives with caring responsibilities to visit loved ones in care homes.
However she believes this was widely ignored and that the Department of Health made no effort to enforce it.
"The lessons really need to be learned here. When I look back, my mommy's human rights were not respected, and they should have been.”
She met health minister Robin Swann and virtually every health and social care body in Northern Ireland to campaign for proper access for relatives.
"We raised this from day one of lockdown, I wanted to get into my mum's care at home because I cared for my mummy and I visited her several times a day."
Solicitor Enda McGarrity, who represents her campaign group, said the families’ criticism of Stormont’s Covid response has been vindicated by the inquiry. They believed the conduct of many politicians “was characterised by petty party politics rather than public health considerations”.
Mr McGarrity said the report recommendations must be implemented – including allowing for delegation of powers to the first and deputy first ministers in times of emergency; a reconstitution of the role and functions of the chief medical officer; and an update of Stormont’s ministerial code.