Queen zooms in to thank carers isolated by the pandemic

The Queen and the Princess Royal took part in a video conference call with carers supported by the Carers Trust - the first of her reign. The monarch chatted with four carers and chief executive Gareth Howells from Windsor Castle and praised carers for their extraordinary work.

The “four-nation” approach to tackling the coronavirus outbreak has broken down, Scotland’s health secretary has claimed, with no formal discussions between devolved and UK ministers in two weeks.

The heads of the four UK governments have not held a formal meeting on the crisis in a month, the last Cobra meeting taking place on 10 May.

Jean Freeman told the House of Commons Scottish affairs committee that there was a “vacuum” in collaboration at a ministerial level, although top medical and scientific advisers for the four governments continue to speak regularly.

Ms Freeman also faced tough questioning from Conservative members of the committee over the Scottish Government’s record on deaths in care homes.

The health secretary did not express regret for the policy of shifting elderly patients from hospitals into care homes at the start of the crisis, but she did admit: “There are lessons to be learned and decisions made I would not necessarily make now.”

Ministerial implementation groups, with ministers from the four governments discussing the coronavirus crisis, are to be disbanded, with Ms Freeman voicing concern that details of what would replace them have not yet been confirmed. The last meeting took place two weeks ago.

Ms freeman said she had had no contact with Scottish Secretary Alister Jack on coronavirus, although she holds weekly phonecalls with fellow health ministers including UK Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Scotland’s National Clinical Director Professor Jason Leitch told MPS that the Scottish Government had only a “peripheral role” in a UK Joint Biosecurity Centre announced by the Prime Minister, and would not take part unless it was safe and useful to do so.

“There is currently a vacuum in terms of shared discussion and decision making at ministerial level,” Ms Freeman told MPS. “The First Minister, I understand, has had calls, both with Michael Gove and with the Prime Minister, but there has been no forums for shared discussion and decision making.”

She added: “Collaboration involves shared discussion and decision making. It does not involve the communication of announcements.

“I do not know why the ministerial implementation groups are to be disbanded. I do not know what is coming in their stead. That is not my version of corporate collaboration which is based on a degree of shared respect, consultation and decision making.”

With the UK government under fire over a U-turn on returning all primary school pupils in England to class before the summer holidays, the SNP minister took aim at Boris Johnson’s plan for lifting the lockdown.

“Our approach, I think, differs from what I observed of the UK government’s approach in that we are much more phased and planned, and resisting the pressure to make announcements between[ official reviews ], because we don’t consider that that is helpful in the public understanding of what we’re doing,” she said.

“We do require compliance and co-operation [and] we wouldn’t want to squander that by not planning how we are going to release lockdown.

“In other words, having all the key stakeholders with us, the guidance ready, so that on the date we say we’re going to do X or Y, we are actually ready to deliver.”

Ms Freeman was challenged over the slow rollout of testing for care home staff, with Borders MP John Lamont asking if it was “sufficient” for just 22 care home workers receiving tests in a week.

Despite a pledge to test all staff, just one fifth of care home workers have been tested so far. The health secretary said she had written to health boards instructing them to provide weekly reports on the progress in rolling out testing in care homes.

“So, the self evident answer to that is no, that is not sufficient, which is why I have issued that requirement to our NHS boards who are responsible for delivering this.”

There were also tense exchanges with Tory Aberdeenshire MP Andrew Bowie, who said the death toll of more than 1,800 in care homes – half of all those who have died in Scotland and higher than the figure in hospitals – was a “shameful statistic”.

Following the committee session, Mr Bowie accused the health secretary of a “terrifying lack of knowledge” after she was unable to quote the figure for care home deaths.

Ms Freeman also said figures for the proportion of the more than 1,400 hospital patients discharged into care homes tested for coronavirus are still being validated. She defended the policy on the basis of clinical and scientific advice.

“The SNP is entirely in control of the health service in Scotland and they alone bear the responsibility for the SNP government’s decisions throughout the Covid crisis,” Mr Bowie said. “Noone is fooled by Ms Freeman’s attempts to shift the blame to everyone but herself.

“The SNP health secretary took the decision to move untested patients from hospitals into care homes, and it is a cynical ploy to try to blame hospital doctors or care home staff.”