I want to know why they waited. Lives were lost because we should have shut down faster
Grieving widow demands answers after public inquiry is announced
FAMILIES who have lost loved ones to Covid are demanding answers from the Scottish Government after it announced a public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.
The First Minister yesterday promised the judge-led inquiry, set to begin by the end of the year, would take a “personcentred, human rights-based” approach.
Families such as Jan Gillan’s, whose husband Mark, 53, died at the start of the pandemic, are among thousands who will help shape the independent probe during a month-long consultation.
The widow, 56, said she wants to know why Scotland wasn’t locked down sooner and will question why dad-of-three Mark was not eligible to shield and forced to go to work in a factory every day despite having a number of health issues.
She said: “I want to know why they waited so long to act when they knew this was coming.
“Mark and I sat and watched what was happening to Italy and we knew we were next. The response was far too slow and I strongly believe lives were lost because we should have shut things down faster.”
Mark, who worked for 30 years in a soap factory, first showed symptoms of the virus in March last year and isolated at home in Glasgow’s Carntyne with Jan, twins Ebony and Hope, 21, and daughter Brenna, 20, for two weeks before his condition deteriorated dramatically.
Within a day of being admitted to hospital, the dad, who suffered from asthma and pernicious anaemia, was on a ventilator in intensive care.
He died less than three weeks later without seeing his family again.
Jan said: “I believe Mark should have been shielding but he didn’t fit the criteria initially. There must be hundreds like him who went under the radar.
“The financial impact of Covid on families also needs to be looked at. I got
bereavement support for 18 months then it stopped. I’ve lost my job and still have to pay the bills.”
The Scottish Government said the inquiry will focus on the “four harms” of the pandemic: direct health impacts of Covid-19, including cases and deaths in care homes; other non-Covid health impacts; societal impacts, including education; and economic impacts.
Margaret Johnston, 88, died during an outbreak at The Orchard Care Home in Tullibody, Clackmannanshire, in May 2020 – just days after testing positive for coronavirus.
Nicola Sturgeon has admitted the decision to send patients into care homes from hospitals at the start of the crisis was a mistake and Margaret’s daughter Caroline Grattan believes new admissions could be responsible for the outbreak that killed her mum.
She is taking legal action after failing to get answers on her mum’s case and yesterday called for the inquiry to lay bare the true extent of the care home crisis. She said: “We need to know what happened with admissions. They put those people in homes with the most vulnerable when the virus was at its peak.
“I don’t think we know the full extent of what happened and I will be asking the Scottish Government for answers.”
Scotland’s top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain QC, has begun talks about appointing a judge to lead the inquiry and the public are invited to comment until September 30.
The Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group met Deputy First Minister John Swinney ahead of yesterday’s announcement, where Alan Wightman, whose mum Helen died of Covid in her Fife care home, said the group will fight for answers for all those who have lost a loved one. He said: “Today, we have a commitment, we will continue and we will get the answers that they want.”
Peter McMahon, who lost wife Debbie last summer at the age of 53, said: “Debbie, along with thousands of others, died what I see as an avoidable death.
“I’d like this public inquiry to confirm who took certain decisions, clarify why they were taken, especially around the ending of shielding in July 2020.”
Jane Morrison’s wife Jacky died in October of last year after she contracted coronavirus in hospital while being treated for jaundice.
She said: “Not only are they big enough to admit that mistakes were made, they have a genuine desire to learn lessons and the public inquiry will allow this to happen.”
Solicitor Aamer Anwar, acting on behalf of the Scottish families, said the inquiry must “leave no stone unturned”, adding: “Grieving families must be at the heart of the inquiry to get to the truth of what happened.”
Swinney said talks were ongoing with the UK Government on the four nations inquiry.