Data suggests 894 staff in hospitals infected

Around 900 hospital staff have so far been infected by the coronavirus, Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has admitted for the first time.

Ms Freeman produced data suggesting 894 hospital workers had been struck by the disease or were suspected to have the virus.

The figure raised more fears about the risk of acquiring the infection in hospitals following last week’s revelation that around 900 patients on non-covid wards had the virus.

At Holyrood Ms Freeman confirmed 901 hospital patients on non-covid wards had been hit by the virus – 870 were confirmed cases and the remainder were suspected. Of those, 218 have died.

Addressing MSPS, she declined to say whether any of the 894 workers had died due to the disease.

She revealed the figures during a furious row at Holyrood over how the Scottish Government has treated data on hospital infection.

Last week Ms Freeman said there had been 125 “incidents” of coronavirus on non-covid wards between March 18 and June 3, a figure that was widely interpreted as meaning 125 patients.

Later, however, it emerged the 125 incidents had involved 908 patients (a figure that was revised downwards to 901). Of those patients, 218 had died.

Ms Freeman emphasised that the data was “unvalidated” at this stage and was based on reports from health boards. She said it was not a definitive account because of the virus’s 14-day incubation time.

In the Scottish Parliament, Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs suggested Ms Freeman should apologise to families for the “misleading picture” that had emerged around the spread of coronavirus in hospital wards.

He also called for more accurate figures to be published.

Ms Freeman said she had been “attempting to be helpful” by publishing “unvalidated data”, but suggested that she would not do so in future.

She said she apologised to everyone who has lost a loved one during the pandemic and said everyone should do that every day.

Ms Freeman added: “If Mr Briggs thinks for one minute that I do not spend just about every minute of my day thinking about the impact of the pandemic, he is very much mistaken.

“What I will continue to do is publish validated data from now on, because… it is clear these are suspected transmissions, suspected cases, suspected deaths linked to them and the validated data will be published, I hope, by the end of this month.

“Although all of that is clear, you have chosen to take unvalidated data and pretend it is validated. That is inexcusable.”

Mr Briggs said Ms Freeman had admitted at the weekend that not enough hospital staff were being tested. Surgeons had warned that one fifth of patients treated for broken hips in March and April had gone on to get the virus while in hospital.

Ms Freeman said the data was an estimation and it was only when the data was validated that it would be known how many of those cases, staff infections and deaths were because of hospital-acquired Covid-19.