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When a senior civil servant describes what happened in care homes during the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic as a “generational slaughter”, we should all take notice.

More than that — we should demand change.

The Covid Inquiry is finally getting to the part that many of us have been waiting for: the treatment of elderly and disabled people in care.

The evidence is harrowing.

But it also confirms what some of us said in real time — and were attacked for saying: that the government knowingly sacrificed lives in care homes, and used the private nature of the sector to evade responsibility.

Let’s not beat around the bush.

Care homes were not just neglected — they were used as dumping grounds for potentially infectious hospital patients.

Ministers and health officials claimed they were “following the science.”

But they were really following austerity, deregulation, and decades of privatisation — and it killed people.

Back in May 2020, then-health secretary Matt Hancock told Parliament that the government had “thrown a protective ring” around care homes.

In truth, that ring turned out to be a noose — made of half-truths, delays, and dangerous policy.

The inquiry has now revealed that:

• 46,000 care home residents died with Covid in England and Wales during the pandemic — many in the early weeks.

• Patients were discharged from hospitals into care homes without being tested — even when the government already knew about asymptomatic spread.

• There was no centralised plan to supply PPE or trained staff — care homes were told to source what they could.

• And some residents were slapped with Do Not Resuscitate notices without consultation, especially if they had dementia or disabilities.

And why was the government able to do this?

Because care homes are not part of the NHS.

They’re private businesses, often owned by big chains or asset-stripping hedge funds.

That distance allowed ministers to claim that what happened inside them was “not our responsibility.”

But it was. And it still is.

Privatisation wasn’t an accident — it was the mechanism

This wasn’t just mismanagement.

It was a calculated political structure, decades in the making, where responsibility could be outsourced alongside the service itself.

Under the Tories — and yes, under New Labour too — the care sector was gradually fragmented, underfunded, and privatised.

What should be a public good — supporting our elders and disabled citizens with dignity — was turned into a market.

When the crisis hit, the result was chaos.

That’s what Alasdair Donaldson, the civil servant who coined the phrase “generational slaughter,” described in his evidence: “complete chaos” in the Department of Health and Social Care.

No control.

No clarity.

No co-ordination.

And people died as a result.

The only thing that was ring-fenced was liability.

Wes Streeting wants to wait — we can’t

Labour’s Wes Streeting has been promising to overhaul the care sector — but not until the end of the current Parliament.

Why wait?

What we’ve seen at the Inquiry makes one thing obvious: delay is deadly.

Reform can’t be a footnote in a future manifesto.

It has to be a first-order priority.

If care homes remain in private hands, nothing will change.

The next crisis will come — and again, the system will collapse, and the most vulnerable will pay the price.

If that happens, it will be because somebody wants it to. It will be because somebody decided it was more important to save money than it was to save lives. And that’s where we’ve been going wrong for too long.

This is not just about better funding or nicer facilities.

It’s about bringing the care sector back under democratic, public control.

If we don’t own it, we can’t protect them.

Dignity demands action — not apologies

The most powerful moments in the inquiry have come not from politicians or officials, but from bereaved families.

These are people like Ann, whose father — lost in the fog of dementia — cried and begged to be allowed to die because he didn’t understand why his family was outside his window.

Or Julie, whose mother died sedated and alone.

Or Nicky, who had to watch her mother die over a video call because the staff hadn’t realised she was already slipping away.

These are not isolated tragedies.

They are systemic betrayals.

They should never be allowed to happen again.

Now is the time — not in five years, not after “lessons are learned,” not once the political heat has died down.

Now is the time to take back control of care.

To end the “generational slaughter”, we must end the privatisation that enabled it.

No more excuses.

No more outsourcing of responsibility.

It is our future — and our duty – to put right our collective shame.

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