Emotions run high at FMQS over care home deaths
Nicola Sturgeon yesterday appeared to fight back tears in Holyrood as she faced tough questions over the spread of coronavirus in Scotland’s care homes.
The First Minister was forced to briefly halt a response to MSPS after a personal plea from Labour’s Neil Findlay to stop moving patients from hospitals into care homes without them being tested for coronavirus.
Mr Findlay, whose mother is in a care home, said residential homes were the “epicentre” of Covid-19 death rates and threw doubt on the Scottish Government’s response to the crisis.
New figures from the National Records of Scotland showed 59 per cent of coronavirus deaths are now in care homes.
Ms Sturgeon told MSPS the situation was “deeply and profoundly upsetting” for everyone and said Mr Findlay should not frame questions in a way that suggests she was not trying everything “to do the right thing” to address the issue, before breaking off.
Ms Sturgeon said: “Every single one of us is deeply concerned and moved by what is happening in our care homes. That is particularly the case for people like him who have relatives in care homes, but I don’t think there is a single one of us who does not find this a deeply and profoundly upsetting situation.”
Her voice appearing to break, Ms Sturgeon added: “So please do not ask these questions in a way that suggests we are not all trying to do everything we possibly can to do the right thing.”
Her emotional response came after she was also challenged by Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard to have all 85,000 residents and staff in Scotland’s care homes tested for coronavirus in the next two weeks. He said that two thirds of Scotland’s testing capacity was not being used, so all care home workers and residents could be tested.
Mr Leonard said: “There are around 85,000 residents and workers in care homes for older people in Scotland. If we have the capacity for 10,500 tests a day, with almost two-thirds of that daily testing capacity currently going unused, then there is no reason why everyone in Scotland’s care homes, both staff and residents, couldn’t be tested over the next two weeks.”
The First Minister insisted Scotland’s 14 health boards’ public health directors were already in contact with every care home in Scotland to “address deficiencies” in infection prevention and control.
“Not a day, an hour, goes by when the health secretary, I and others, do not discuss the action that is being taken and the support given to deal with the situation in care homes,” she said.
“Testing is important but it has to be clinically driven as well. Where there’s an outbreak there’s testing of all residents and staff whether symptomatic or asymptomatic and there’s also testing being done in care homes without outbreaks.”
She added: “It’s really important, particularly for frail, elderly people as the tests can be quite invasive, that it’s driven by best clinical advice and evidence. We must not over simplify the situation to say it’s the only thing that matters; basic infection prevention and control is the most important thing in care homes dealing with this infection, or any infection.”