Government officials breaking rules during Covid 'beyond galling' says North East woman whose dad died
Dominic Cummings and Lee Cain gave evidence yesterday at an inquiry
Last updated 1st Nov 2023
A woman from the North East says it is 'beyond galling' that Government officials broke the rules whilst her dad died to Covid in March 2020.
It comes as Dominic Cummings, former Prime Minister Boris Johnson's top adviser, gave evidence yesterday at the official Covid-19 Inquiry. Lee Cain, his former head of communications, also gave evidence.
Cummings travelled to Barnard Castle in County Durham during lockdown claiming to test his eyesight.
Susie Flintham is from Sunderland and a spokesperson for the COVID Bereaved Families for Justice. She said: "I thought that he would be discharged within a week. I saw him on Saturday the 21st and he was alot better, he was on the mend, he had been laughing, joking and singing with me. I turned up on the 22nd and they said 'oh, you can't come in. We have a Covid patient on the ward.'
"I wasn't allowed to see him and it was really difficult to get information from the ward as well because they were clearly beginning to be overrun but on Wednesday the 25th, I got the phone call to say 'it's end of life. You need to come in and you need to come in now.' I went in, I was allowed 10 minutes and I was told he was tested positive for Covid.
"The deterioration in him from the previous Saturday to the Wednesday was staggering. He looked terrified; he looked tiny, he was grey, he couldn't breathe, his cheeks were sunken, he was gaunt and he couldn't speak.
"It was the first time I saw PPE and I was masked, gloved and aproned so I don't even know if he knew who I was. I saw him for as many 10 minute increments as I was allowed to and then on Saturday the 28th, in the small hours of the morning, there was a voicemail telling me that he died.
"I wanted him cremated with my mum but we had to wait until the 15th of April. There was myself, my partner, the minister and the organist and that was it. No wake, no celebrations, no hugs, no nothing and between my dad dying and the funeral, Dominic Cummings had his eyesight testing trip to County Durham and Barnard Castle, which is beyond galling.
"I was furious but it was also deeply hurtful because of the sacrifice that myself and so many people had made losing their loved ones, and also the sacrifice of people who may be didn't lose people to Covid. It felt like we were being mocked and it felt like they were just laughing at us.
"I was quite fortunate because a lot of people didn't get to see their loved ones but if you compare what I witnessed in hospital on a Covid ward with six people on it, to the fact that they were having wine time Friday or driving 300 odd miles to visit their family and my dad died alone. It's beyond an insult."