A DOCTOR has compared the discharging of elderly patients to care homes during the Covid pandemic as “a form of genocide”.

Intensive care doctor Laura McClelland worked at the Royal Gwent Hospital in Newport during the deadly first wave.

Speaking to BBC Radio Wales Breakfast this morning, February 26, she said there remains a “great deal of anger” about the way Covid pressures were handled with some impacts still being felt four years on.

“I do think there is a great deal of anger within healthcare with the way that elective work was managed in that time because it has now had such a significant impact,” she said.

“We are now so far behind that we have let down hundreds of thousands of people.

“Whilst I believe that sending elderly patients off, without having Covid status ascertained, into care homes was ultimately a form of genocide, and the decisions that were made were the wrong ones, or at least certainly the way that the public message was handled wrong, I can see how it happened."

In 2020, there were a reported 75 deaths of adult care home residents related to Covid in Newport, and 1,241 across Wales. It means around one in six care home resident deaths were related to Covid across Wales.

“Was there an alternative? You’ve only got so many care providers. We tried to rustle up carers. We succeeded to a degree but people didn’t want to put themselves in the firing line of a disease that was going to kill them for the minimum wage, or even twice the minimum wage, or even three times the minimum wage. Who would?

“I’m not sure there were the alternatives people thought we had.”

Dr McClelland said it was difficult to talk about some of her experiences on the frontline. She said: “One gentleman would phone us every night to ask about his daughter, and she died weeks and weeks before.

“He just wasn’t able to be there at the end.”

Her comments coincide with the arrival of the Covid inquiry in Wales which will see ministers and health officials give evidence over the next three weeks.

Asked about Dr McClelland’s comments, a spokesperson for the Welsh Government said: “These areas will be considered as part of the UK Covid-19 Public Inquiry.

“Welsh Ministers and government officials will be giving detailed evidence in the coming weeks.”

A spokesperson for the Aneurin Bevan University Health Board said: “We would like to make it clear that Dr McClelland has not worked for the Health Board since 2020 and her views are not representative of the Health Board, nor her former Critical Care Consultant colleagues.

“During the Covid-19 pandemic, the Health Board followed national guidance and implemented testing for care homes as soon as testing resource was made available to us.

“The Health Board would also like to reassure the public that at no stage did we completely stop elective surgery. We were able to isolate one of our hospitals and continued with urgent elective surgery for our patients.

“Losing any patient, whether in our hospitals or in a care setting, is devastating to the families involved but also to our NHS staff who put their own lives and families at risk to care for others during unprecedented and frightening times.”