WHY WAS MY MUM SACRIFICED?
Daughter demands to know why she had to fight to get dying 91-year-old mother out of a care home and into hospital and why so many other older Covid patients weren’t transferred
THE daughter of a 91-yearold gran who died of Covid-19 she contracted in a care home is demanding to know why her mum was “sacrificed” by ministers.
Retired teacher Anne Duncan passed away in Edinburgh’s Western General Hospital two days after her family managed to force a move out of a care home in the city, where they feared she would die alone.
Her daughter Linda hit out at what she called a “scandalous” policy to release Covid patients into care homes and called for her mum’s death to be investigated as part of a wider review.
Linda said: “I will probably never know for sure how my mother became infected. But the two main possibilities are that residents released from hospital into the home under Government policy brought it in, or that staff working in a variety of places introduced it.
“The elderly were not a priority. Care homes had no access to fluids and no oxygen to help their breathing after they became ill.
“They were being despatched, considered too difficult to save.”
She believes the only plan was end-of-life care, such as morphine, with “no thought to their dignity or the need to have someone hold their hand”.
She added: “The only comfort is that in the end my mother was cared for and treated with dignity, because we managed to insist that she be transferred to hospital.
“I was told she put out her hand at the end and though I am heartbroken I was not there to hold it, there was someone to take it.”
Linda, a lawyer based in London, and her son Anton last visited Anne for her 91st birthday on March 18, five days before lockdown began. Both wore personal protective equipment and could only go to her room. Linda said: “I’m glad we saw her as she died less than a month later but we could have predicted what was to come.
“A lot of residents were crying, calling out and there were nowhere near enough staff to cope. Many residents did not understand why they had no visitors.
“My mother was old but she had a lot of fight. She had survived tuberculosis, cancer, a heart attack and a stroke, but she was not given a fighting chance to recover from Covid-19.”
She hit out at both the UK and the Scottish Governments.
LINDA DUNCAN ON THE TREATMENT OF ELDERLY
She said: “The treatment of the elderly in our care homes will possibly emerge as the most scandalous failure by leaders at Westminster and Holyrood. Our leaders have all been at fault.
“If the plan was to sacrifice the elderly in care homes, they should have been transparent about it.
“The policy to release Covid-19 patients from hospitals into care homes was scandalous and needs to be examined fully.”
Linda has been unimpressed by the Scottish Government’s actions. She said: “Scottish ministers have been saying the rate of deaths in care homes is down. Of course they are down. They are running out of residents to kill with this virus.
“I want answers. I want to know why staff in care homes in England were wearing masks long before it became the norm in Scotland.
“We are angry so many failings came together to end so many lives.”
The Scottish Government was unable to comment on details of individual cases. However, a spokesperson said: “We expect all care homes to ensure the safety of staff and residents.
“Our guidance says clinical decisions about care and treatment, including hospital admission, should always be made on an individual basis, based on the person’s best interests and in consultation with the individual or their families and representatives.”