Covid: Wife calls for Wales-inquiry after husband's suicide

The widow of a man who took his own life after the stress of running a care home during Covid is calling for a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

Louise Hough, who co-ran Gwastad Hall nursing home in Cefn-y-Bedd, Flintshire, said they had no testing, oxygen or PPE.

Mrs Hough's husband, Vernon, killed himself on 21 May 2020.

The Welsh government said it would act on the UK-wide inquiry's findings.

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"The World Health Organization stressed that we tested, tested, tested. There was no testing in the nursing home at all at that time," said Mrs Hough.

She said the couple resorted to sending staff as far as Manchester Airport to get drive-through tests.

'No help coming from anywhere'

The last picture of Louise and Vernon Hough together, taken the night before his death

On 28 April 2020, the UK government announced Covid testing would be extended to all staff and residents in England, even for those who did not have symptoms.

That was not the case in Wales, with First Minister Mark Drakeford saying he saw "no value" in providing tests to everybody in care homes at the time.

"That was a pivotal moment for me and Vernon," said Mrs Hough, part of the Covid Bereaved Families for Justice group.

"We were watching it on the television... we just stopped speaking, Vernon and I, and we just thought, 'where do we go from there?'

"We were walking through mud and the government really decided, 'you are out there on your own'.

"There was no help. There was no help coming from anywhere."

It was not until 16 May where the then Health Minister Vaughan Gething brought in blanket testing for staff and care home residents.

The changes resulted from "emerging evidence and scientific advice", Mr Gething said at the time.

'We need answers'

Louise Hough believes her husband's distress at seeing patients struggling led directly to his death

Twelve Gwastad Hall residents died in those first few months of the pandemic, but Mrs Hough said she was still unsure of how many died because of Covid.

She said she believed her husband's distress at seeing the patients struggling led directly to his death.

"Vernon is a victim of Covid, he never actually caught it that we know of, but being around it and nursing patients with Covid... there was nothing else that could make him so unhappy."

Mrs Hough said she wanted the Welsh government held to account and "wants answers".

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Mary Wimbury, chief executive of Care Forum Wales which represents health and social care providers, said it was important the story about how the sector was affected by Covid-19 was told and "lessons are learned".

She said, despite the Hough family's tragedy, their experience was not "atypical" and she also felt early testing could have made a "phenomenal" difference.

Mrs Hough sold Gwastad Hall in January and has since retired, a plan she had made with her husband.

"He would have loved being retired. We worked in the nursing home for 33 years, coming up 34. He was looking forward to retirement. There were a lot of plans we had for the future. It was sadly not to be."

A memorial bench made by Mrs Hough for her husband reads: "He will be greatly missed by more people than he ever thought"

In May, Prime Minister Boris Johnson told MPs an independent public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic would be held in spring 2022.

Mr Drakeford previously said he believed a UK-wide inquiry was the best way to properly scrutinise the decisions made by the Welsh government and other public sector organisations in Wales.

In a statement, a Welsh government spokesperson said: "A UK-wide inquiry will have the capacity and force to oversee the interconnected nature of the decisions that have been made across the four nations.

"The first minister has written directly to the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster about the many specific issues the inquiry must focus on to deal comprehensively with the actions of the Welsh government."

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