Sturgeon sorry for blunder in letter

Health secretary faces Tory calls to quit after vulnerable misinformed

Nicola Sturgeon apologised to 18,000 vulnerable Scots given incorrect information on how to combat the coronavirus as she stood by her embattled health secretary.

The first minister defended Jeane Freeman and described Scottish Conservative calls for the health secretary to quit as “absolutely and utterly disgraceful”.

Tory leader Jackson Carlaw urged Ms Sturgeon to get rid of Ms Freeman after it emerged thousands of people who have been shielding at home received a letter misinforming them about when it was safe to go outside.

The NHS letter wrongly suggested shielded individuals could go outside this week (June 8) when the correct date agreed by health experts was June 18.

The mistake was publicised hours before Ms Sturgeon announced at her daily coronavirus briefing that shielding for the 180,000 people who have been subjected to the most severe restrictions is to be extended until July 31.

Mr Carlaw claimed the mix-up was the latest in a series of blunders that could be laid at Ms Freeman’s door.

In a statement, the Conservative mentioned the Scottish Government’s handling of the outbreak at the Nike conference at the outset of the pandemic.

The party also pointed to Ms Freeman giving an incorrect estimate of the number of patients discharged from hospital to care homes without routine tests. They also accused her of failing to pass on vulnerable patients’ details to supermarkets so they could receive supplies.

The Tories also mentioned highprofile controversies involving infections and deaths at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital and delays to the new hospital for sick children in Edinburgh, which occurred before the pandemic.

Mr Carlaw said: “Jeane Freeman was already on borrowed time before coronavirus hit. But as this crisis has unfolded, a number of issues have unfolded on her watch which were completely avoidable, and enough is enough.”

At her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon apologised “deeply and sincerely” for the wrong date, saying: “Mistakes like that should not be adding to the distress you are already feeling and I can only apologise for that.”

The first minister said during the pandemic she had resisted the temptation to make party political points in the interests of tackling the crisis and had rejected invitations to criticise the UK Government.

But she said she would react to the Tory statement, because she thought it was “absolutely and utterly disgraceful”, suggesting that Mr Carlaw’s party was without shame.

“Unfortunately, I don’t find it surprising,” she said. “For the last few weeks the Scottish Tories have seemed to me to be not very interested at all in the real issues that we are grappling with and dealing with here.

“They have seemed to me interested only in party political politics and trying to undermine a health secretary who is literally working round the clock to deal with the most difficult issues that any of us have ever dealt with.”