CARE HOME CRISIS ‘A NATIONAL SCANDAL’

Tories accuse Sturgeon over treatment of Scots patients

‘The decisions were wrong’

‘It was all one big mess’

NICOLA Sturgeon has been accused of presiding over a ‘national scandal’ in care homes as she faced shocking new allegations about the treatment of patients.

The First Minister admitted at Holyrood that people who had coronavirus symptoms may have been transferred from hospitals into care homes despite it being against the guidelines.

Opponents highlighted claims from a grieving family that people were moved from hospital into care homes in March despite having symptoms of the virus.

It comes as new figures showed another 124 people died in homes last week, taking the total to 1,749, or 46 per cent of all deaths during the outbreak.

Tory leader Jackson Carlaw highlighted the case of Sandra O’Neill, whose mother Mary Masson died at the Almond Care Home in Drumchapel, Glasgow, at the age of 88 last month. She raised concerns about patients being admitted from hospital despite being ill, including at least one resident who ‘had symptoms consistent with Covid-19 when they were returned’.

Mrs O’Neill said: ‘You see films of people down south in their 90s being applauded getting out of hospital. I think they were written off [in Scotland].

‘I can understand why you have to prioritise but I don’t see why they were denied treatment.

‘If I saw Nicola Sturgeon or Jeane Freeman, I’d say I believe their intentions were honourable.

‘But it’s not good enough to say care home staff should accept responsibility. The NHS have a duty of care and they did not exercise that.

‘It’s not the fault of the care home but the NHS. There was capacity.

‘We’d opened that hospital which hasn’t been used, why weren’t those people isolated in that hospital together? The decisions were wrong, my mum should have got hospital treatment.’

Miss Sturgeon was also challenged yesterday about people being moved from hospitals to care homes without the consent of their families.

It was revealed last week that 921 ‘delayed discharge’ patients were moved from hospitals to care homes to help free up beds for the expected ‘tsunami’ of cases.

Mr Carlaw said: ‘It is now clear what happened in our care homes in March and April was a national scandal. We read press reports in April that five residents had died in [Almond Care Home], although Mrs O’Neill has said she believes that it is now more than that, and that little or no attempt was made to isolate residents who were then returned from hospital.

‘She maintains that the frontline care staff did everything they could and were not to blame for what happened. However, there is a growing feeling that residents such as Sandra’s mother were treated like second-class citizens.’

Asked if untested patients had been put into homes despite displaying symptoms, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘Nobody who had symptoms, and nobody for whom the clinical assessment was they should continue to be in hospital, should have been discharged in that way.

‘The guidance is clear: patients should have been clinically riskassessed, and therefore patients with symptoms should not have been discharged to care homes.’

Miss Sturgeon responded to questions over whether there would be a public inquiry into the scandal by saying: ‘Of course there will be a public inquiry’.

The inquiry will look at issues relating to the transfer of patients, and she said the decisions made were based on information and evidence available at the time.

Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said a member of staff at a care home in Lanarkshire had told him that they contacted next of kin of several residents who had been moved from hospital and they had ‘no idea’ they were being transferred. The nurse told him ‘it was all one big mess’.

Told by him that the care home crisis is still not ‘under control’, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I would not yet describe the crisis as being under control. ‘We have a long way to go.’ A spokesman for the Almond Court care home said: ‘I can confirm that we currently have no confirmed or suspected cases within the home.

‘We continue to be vigilant and are following the relevant guidance from Health Protection Scotland and the Scottish Government. We have a good supply of PPE.

‘We could not be prouder of our staff who continue to go above and beyond to safeguard residents.’

Comment – Page 16