CARE DEATHS: ‘CALL IN POLICE’
Lord Advocate considering request to begin criminal investigation
A CRIMINAL investigation should be launched into revelations that dozens of hospital patients who tested positive for coronavirus were transferred to care homes, it was claimed yesterday.
Scotland’s top law officer is considering whether to instruct police to investigate after a formal request by Scottish Labour.
It comes as Nicola Sturgeon yesterday rejected calls for an immediate inquiry into the issue – and claimed she did not know the total number of Covid-19 patients who were discharged into care homes at the start of the pandemic, or whether they triggered outbreaks.
Care home bosses said there was not ‘sufficient clarity’ from the Scottish Government on how patients should be treated when moved from hospital in March as the virus took a grip.
It was revealed at the weekend that at least 37 patients – in Ayrshire and Arran, Grampian, Tayside, Fife and Lanarkshire – who had tested positive were discharged into care homes.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman will face more questions on the revelations at Holyrood today and tomorrow.
Monica Lennon, Scottish Labour’s health spokesman, yesterday wrote to the Lord Advocate, James Wolffe, QC, to demand an urgent investigation into the impact of hospital discharges, by a Crown Office unit set up to investigate care home deaths during the pandemic.
She said: ‘It will be extremely distressing to impacted families to learn that Covid-19 positive patients were knowingly discharged from hospital to care homes, and the least they deserve is a commitment that this will be thoroughly investigated.
‘That’s why I’m asking the Lord Advocate and Police Scotland to confirm what plans are in place to examine how this happened, and whether any legal action needs to be taken. The Scottish Government has failed to be transparent, and that is unacceptable.’
The Scottish Conservatives also demanded that a public inquiry be launched this week into the way Covid-19 patients were sent to care homes.
Donald Cameron, Scottish Conservative health spokesman, said: ‘The horrendous decision to send dozens of Covid patients to care homes cannot be swept under the carpet any longer. There can be no more delays and secrecy. Light must be shone on how this scandal happened – immediately.’
Miss Sturgeon said yesterday she was committed to a public inquiry which will include ‘whether – based on what we knew at each stage – the guidance in place was both appropriate and properly implemented’. She said the guidance ‘was considered to be appropriate at every stage’.
However, she said only that an inquiry will be launched ‘in due course’, and refused to commit to fast-tracking it. She also said it would be ‘inappropriate’ to comment on calls for a police probe.
The Scottish Government has confirmed that 1,431 untested patients were moved to care homes between March 1 and April 21, before testing was mandatory.
However, a national figure has not yet been published for the number of patients who were transferred after a positive test – and some health boards, including NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde, NHS Lothian and NHS Highland, have not provided data.
Miss Sturgeon said she has ‘no further figures’ other than the 37 cases reported by the Sunday Post following freedom of information responses by some health boards.
Miss Lennon said it was unacceptable that ‘journalists and politicians are scrambling about trying to get information’.
She said: ‘Any Health Secretary worth their salt would have that information on their desk.’
She added: ‘I think for any health board to say it would be too
‘Extremely distressing to impacted families’
expensive to get this information is disgraceful.’
Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, said there ‘wasn’t sufficient clarity in the early days’ on how dicharged patients should be treated.
A spokesman for the Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service said it has ‘established a dedicated team to deal with reports of Covid-19 or presumed Covid-19 deaths in care homes or where the deceased may have contracted the virus in the course of their employment’, adding: ‘The team will work with the relevant agencies to ensure that all necessary and appropriate investigations are undertaken and that each investigation progresses as expediently as it can.’