Care preparedness issues exposed by virus

Sir, – Maaike Cook makes a reasonable point (More than NHS to thank, Courier, July 6), in that home carers and the care sector in general are the “Cinderellas of health care”.

It has taken this virus outbreak to expose that care homes, Care in the Community providers and others were not set up to cope with this level of infection.

This in my view is a typical failing of a profit driven industry, where they plan for the 80% events and struggle with the 20%.

It is not unusual to health care, it happens in other business sectors, as we see today.

From recollection Health Secretary Jeane Freeman frequently advised that ‘top-up’ support of PPE in April and critical care trained staff were made available and the delivery challenges overcome.

Simply saying there has been a lack of support by Scottish Government seems to

steps to work through, and the instructions are not very clear.

We are both reasonably capable, not stupid, yet both of us got it wrong, and had to redo it with another kit.

Coincidentally our daughter also got tested on that day, and she too had to get a second kit to complete the test.

Now if everybody has the same trouble as us, just for the sake of proper instructions, the total cost of the kits, and their administration, will be doubled, not an cast the blame away from the responsible business owner of the care contract.

This is a rather harsh and uncaring way of putting it, but that is how contractual arrangements are made in a typical healthcare system as seen in the privatised USA.

I agree that home carers need thanked by being rewarded for their efforts, so how do we do this in a reasonable and equitable way?

A ‘carer’s income’

inconsiderable amount when millions of tests are involved.

Fortunately all of our tests proved negative, but it occurred to me that, in the hands of an unscrupulous government, with much confusion about testing, these tests could be presented as six tests done, none testing positive, which, projected nationwide, could considerably skew the statistics.

Not that I am suggesting that our Westminster could be one step allowing the carer to step back from their normal employment, however, there are other issues in this area to be considered.

Finally, I would point out that listening to the daily briefings that Murdo Fraser and Jackson Carlaw want to shut down, Ms Freeman has thanked those people frequently for their efforts.

Alistair Ballantyne. Birkhill,

Angus.

Government are in any way less than ‘scrupulous’.

Les Mackay. Carmichael Gardens, Dundee.