Covid patients knowingly sent into Scots care homes
●Jeane Freeman urged to ‘come clean’ over practice by Conservatives
The Scottish Government has been accused of an “abject lack of transparency” after claims that dozens of elderly Scots hospital patients who tested positive for Covid-19 were released into care homes.
SNP ministers are now being urged to “end the secrecy” and for the care homes involved to be identified.
Figures obtained through Freedom of Information legislation have shown that 37 patients were released into care homes at the height of pandemic in Scotland during March and April. The information found 17 of the positive cases were in Ayrshire and Arran, with seven in Grampian, six in Tayside, four in Fife and three in Lanarkshire.
Health boards have insisted that transfers only took place after liaison with care homes, which included a full assessment and isolation measures for the patients involved.
But the revelations have prompted opposition anger, with care homes accounting for about half – 1,950 – of Scotland’s Covid-19 death toll. First
Minister Nicola Sturgeon and health secretary Jeane Freeman are now being urged to clarify the situation.
Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron said: “It is astonishing that we are only finding out what happened now after a newspaper investigation.
“The abject lack of transparency from the SNP government means we may never find out how many more people were infected when patients with Covid-19 were sent to care homes, and the lessons we should be learning are likely to be lost.
“The families of victims have been grotesquely failed. For months, people have been desperately trying to find out what happened to their loved ones.
“They need answers – why did Nicola Sturgeon not come clean about sending Covid-positive patients to care homes? Why are public health experts forced to beg for information? Why have contact tracers only used customer details for one pub in Aberdeen? It’s high time the SNP government answered these very serious questions and started being honest about what’s gone wrong and why.”
The Scottish Government had confirmed 1,431 untested patients were moved to care homes between 1 March and 21 April before testing of new care home admissions became mandatory.
Scotland’s care homes account for 46 per cent of the country’s coronavirus-related deaths, official figures show. Another 46 per cent of deaths were in hospitals and 7 per cent of deaths were at home or non-institutional settings, the National Records of Scotland said.
A Scottish Government spokeswoman said that in certain circumstances – such as if a patient had dementia – people can be admitted to care homes without a routine coronavirus test, but that all residents still had to comply with a 14-day isolation period.
The spokeswoman also said that guidance issued on 26 March instructed hospitals to inform care homes if any discharged patients had been in contact with an infected person, but did not comment on the specific claim that infected patients had been knowingly discharged.
“There has never been guidance or policy to actively move patients unwell with Covid-19 into care homes,” she said.
“Discharge decisions for individual patients are made by clinicians based on the patient’s needs.
“If somebody is discharged to a care home it is because that has been assessed as the best place to meet their needs.
“No evidence of any kind has been given to the government that would substantiate the serious accusation that any clinicians withheld test results and it is not acceptable if full information was not passed on .”
Dr Crawford Mcguffie, medical director at NHS Ayrshire and Arran, said clinical teams completed a risk assessment with care homes before discharge and made clear the importance of ensuring 14 days of isolation and “robust infection prevention and control measures”.
NHS Tayside said in a statement that patients who tested positive were discharged following a clinical assessment and in liaison with each care home.
“Hospital doctors believed the most appropriate care environment for these patients would be within their own care home with all appropriate infection-control measures taken,” the health board said.
The decisions were made before national guidance was agreed that patients should have a negative swab test before being discharged to care homes.
But Ms Freeman is now facing calls to make a Holyrood statement to explain the situation.
Labour health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said: “Confirmation that Covid-19 positive patients were knowingly discharged to care homes is almost beyond belief.
“Why was it deemed acceptable to place infectious people into care homes that didn’t have enough PPE and staff, putting vulnerable older people and those who care for them at risk?
“The secrecy must end and Jeane Freeman must come to Parliament this week to explain the Scottishgovernment’ s actions .”
Liberal Democrat health spokesman Alex Colehamilton MSP said it was “essential” a public inquiry was launched into the Scottish Government’s handling of the coronavirus crisis.
He said: “There is no time to wait. This has to be a rapid, future-focused review that keeps more people safe if there is a second wave of the virus.”
“The families of victims have been grotesquely failed. For months, people have been desperately trying to find out what happened ...”
DONALD CAMERON
Scottish Tories health spokesman