Professor Cecily Kelleher:

We were an expert panel tasked to ask those with that responsibility what the issues were in transfers from nursing homes. The committee will appreciate that we do not have direct oversight of that. We were very clear that we would like to understand whether transfer from nursing homes contributed in any way to this outbreak. We were assured that protocols were put in place rapidly in relation to testing that was appropriate, and that this needed to be in place. Again, we made clear recommendations around transfers from nursing homes, which is a key component of management going forward. I stress that we have also made recommendations in respect of a number of other factors, including the healthcare workers who are working in those facilities, the ongoing rolling testing that needs to be in place in that regard, and indeed any potential risk for entry into that setting. I could turn to any of my colleagues who would like to elaborate on that.

Another issue in this regard, which we have raised, is a unique identifier. It is very important that we would be able to track the transfer of patients into different settings, and to be able to do that robustly.