Tories tell top law lord to investigate SNP’s care homes coronavirus advice

SCOTLAND’S top prosecutor is being urged to consider whether the Scottish Government’s handling of care homes during the virus crisis breached public health legislation.

The Scottish Tories have written to Lord Advocate James Wolffe, QC, saying ministers’ actions have had ‘harrowing and devastating consequences for the residential care home sector’.

The party claims the decision in March to move elderly patients from hospitals into care homes could breach the Public Health Act 2008, which sets out a duty on Government to ‘protect the community’ from infectious disease. Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said ‘answers on this matter are urgently required’.

Scottish Government figures show more than 900 elderly patients were discharged from hospital into care homes in March – before a requirement for them to be tested for Covid19 was introduced.

National Records of Scotland data has revealed that between

March 16 and July 19, there were 2,365 (54 per cent) more deaths in Scotland’s care homes than average – with Covid-19 the underlying cause in 1,873 (79 per cent) of these excess deaths.

First Minister Nicola Stugeon said: ‘The weight of what has happened in care homes, and the implications of that, certainly weigh very heavily on me.’

A spokesman for the Crown Office said: ‘We can confirm that the Crown Office has received correspondence from Miles Briggs MSP and a response will be issued in due course.’