Freeman under fire over leaked NHS letter
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman is facing further questions over the Scotland’s care home coronavirus deaths after a leaked letter suggested pressure was put on hospitals to clear space by moving out patients.
The letter, written in the early stage of the pandemic, revealed she wrote to NHS bosses urging them to free up hospital beds to ensure that wards had enough capacity after a spike in Covid-19 cases.
More than 2,000 care home residents have died during the pandemic. The Scottish Government was criticised last week after it was revealed that 37 patients were discharged into homes – even though they had tested positive for coronavirus.
The letter to health chiefs reveals they were asked to hit a target of clearing 900 delayed discharges out of hospital by the end of April before going on to thank them for moving 920 patients out by 8 April.
The Scottish Conservatives said the correspondence “wholly undermines” the Health Secretary’s repeated claim that the Scottish Government had no part in the practice of transferring people from hospitals to care homes.
The Scottish Government said: “There is no contradiction whatsoever between asking for reductions in delayed discharges and discharge decisions in individual cases being for clinicians to make.
“The fact remains that any decision on whether a patient is ready for discharge is a clinical decision, made by the clinician in charge.
“Scottish ministers have already confirmed that there will be a public inquiry into all aspects of Covid-19. “