Sturgeon: Families deserve answers on care home deaths
Port amid the virus storm... cruise ship sails up Clyde on way to city dock
FAMILIES have the right to know why their loved ones died in care homes as fears emerge over their human rights being breached, Nicola Sturgeon has admitted.
The First Minister yesterday said she could not ‘find the words’ to express her sorrow over the tragic deaths at residential facilities across Scotland.
And she promised to hear questions from families who would ‘rightly’ want answers as to how their loved ones contracted Covid-19 and the treatment they received.
More than half of all coronavirus deaths in Scotland have occurred in care homes, figures from the National Records of Scotland (NRS) show.
According to the NRS, there have now been 4,119 Covid-19 related deaths in Scotland. Of these, 47 per cent were in care homes.
As well as this, there have been 4,917 excess deaths in Scotland, with 2,463 of these occurring in care homes. There were 49 deaths between June 15 and 21, with 20 of these in care homes.
At its peak, there were 878 more deaths than average from all causes between April 6 and 12. This fell to 39 between June 15 to 21. Only a third of care home staff have been tested for the virus last week – despite a promise that they would all be tested in May.
At First Minister’s Questions yesterday, Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard hit out at advice which said care home residents should not be moved to hospital if they contracted the virus.
He condemned the guidance as ‘one of the greatest scandals of the pandemic’.
Mr Leonard said: ‘We do not need hindsight to tell us that, at a time in their lives when they were at their most susceptible and in need of greater help, those most vulnerable people were badly let down.’ He also raised concerns with guidance issued to care homes that stated residents should not be taken to hospital if they were suspected of having Covid-19. This was in force until May 15.
Miss Sturgeon insisted this advice had not been prepared by ministers. But she said that the Government had ‘taken steps to protect older people in care homes as best we can’.
Mr Leonard highlighted the case of Margaret Laidlaw, who was moved into a care home in April.
She caught the virus at the Midlothian facility and died within weeks, aged 65. Mr Leonard said: ‘She was kept in the home and her family were told that, because of the Government’s policy, she would not be treated in hospital.
‘Margaret’s family want to know why hospital care was not available. Does [the First Minister] regard that it took too long for the
Government’s advice to be replaced?’
Despite Miss Sturgeon’s claims that it was ‘simply wrong’ to claim government policy prevented people from being admitted – Mr Leonard insisted that it was clinical guidance on the Government’s website with fears this had breached human rights.
Although she would not comment on individual cases, Miss Sturgeon said: ‘[Families] have a right to know what happened in the case of their loved ones and a right to question things that were done and not done.’
Despite this, Miss Sturgeon said that while advice may have been provided on the government website, it was ‘not prepared by ministers – I am not qualified to give clinical advice’.
The advice was removed from the Government’s website on May 15, with updated guidance stating a hospital transfer should take place if it was believed to be in the best interest of the individual.