A DAUGHTER’S ANGER
A woman who lost her mum after a resident with suspected coronavirus was moved into her care home from hospital has branded the handling of the crisis a national disgrace.
Sandra O’neill says she is haunted by the fact mum Mary Martin spent her final hours without oxygen or a transfer to hospital which could have saved her. Mary, 88, died in April just over a fortnight after a fellow resident returned to the Almond Court care home, in Drumchapel, from hospital with suspected Covid symptoms.
A Public Health Scotland report last week stated there was no “statistical evidence” for a link between such patient discharges into homes and subsequent Covid-related deaths.
In response, the First Minister, while regretting the deaths in care homes, said the discharge of positive NHS patients into homes was not statistically significant in the spread of the virus. She said: “Hospital discharges were not found to have contributed to a significantly higher risk of an outbreak”.
Sandra, 67, of Bearsden, condemned NHS and government officials, stating: “That the report says it doesn’t find statistical evidence for such a link is an insult to the intelligence and for the First Minister to reiterate the point is a kick in the teeth. It’s such obvious rubbish. A whitewash. My mum was not statistically insignificant. She was my mum and I think about her all day, every day. She was a person who died in extremely distressing circumstances.
She was not statistically insignificant, First Minister. She was my mum and I think about how she died every day
– Sandra O’neill on mum Mary
“When a GP went in to see her on the morning she passed away she was struggling to breathe and was experiencing a sense like drowning.
“It must have been terrible and it absolutely haunts me. She was left with no oxygen to help her and no pain relief until a couple of hours before she died. I know she was very distressed and spent her last night on her own. I think about it last thing at night and first thing in the morning. It’s just awful.
“It’s not the fault of the care home but the NHS and politicians. We’d opened the NHS Louisa Jordan Hospital and it hasn’t been used. Why not? Why weren’t elderly patients isolated there together? Why wasn’t my mum taken into hospital and why wasn’t she given the proper care?
“I know in my heart that’s how the virus got into the home and it’s a kick in the teeth for the report not to acknowledge it. My mum was there for three years and they really cared for her. It’s a national disgrace that blame is being allowed to shift from highly paid politicians and officials to care workers who are not paid very much.
“I would like clarity and I would like to meet with Nicola Sturgeon and speak to her about what has happened. Only a public inquiry will deliver answers on the SNP Government’s role in sending contagious patients back to mingle with the most vulnerable people in our society.”
A Public Health Scotland report covering March 1 to May 31 showed 113 patients who’d tested positive for Covid-19 were discharged to care homes without a subsequent negative test. Of those, 52 were transferred within a week of their positive diagnosis, 38 within eight to 14 days and 23 more than 14 days later.
A further 3,061 were sent from hospital to care homes despite not being tested prior to discharge. Of those, 112 were shifted after April 21, the day SNP ministers brought in a mandatory policy to test patients before they moved to care facilities.
A spokesman for Almond Court, now the subject of a joint police and Care Inspectorate investigation into alleged mistreatment of residents, said the home had been “free of Covid-19 since the end of May”.
They said they “have never knowingly admitted any resident with confirmed or suspected coronavirus”, adding policy now was “that any new admissions from hospital must have had a negative Covid-19 test and all new admissions are cared for in isolation for the recommended period as a precaution”.
They added: “Like many other care providers, we have sadly had first-hand experience in dealing with coronavirus and some residents have sadly passed away with the virus. Our thoughts remain with their loved ones and they are greatly missed by staff and residents alike.”