A national disgrace: Families demand inquiry scrutinises discharge of positive patients into homes
Relatives claim catastrophic policy could have been criminal
Families of many of the 3,400 care home residents lost to Covid have told ministers a public inquir y must explain the catastrophe.
Civil servants set up an online listening exercise about the inquiry which aimed to encourage ideas from the public. It closed on September 30.
Bereaved families have used the platform to criticise the Scottish Government for transferring untested and Covid- positive hospital patients to care homes, which Nicola Sturgeon has admitted was a mistake.
We told last year how dozens of infectious Covidp o s i t i v e p a t i e n t s we re moved into care homes in the weeks before and after the first lockdown began.
The Scottish Government introduced a requirement for hospital patients to have two negative tests before discharge on April 21, 2020 but a subsequent investigation by The Sunday Post found Covid-positive patients were still being moved to care homes after that date.
The revelations led to a parliamentary vote for a judge- led inquiry and in August, after nine months of delay, ministers announced they would begin the process by the end of the year.
Covid claimed the lives of more than 3,400 care home residents, a third of all virus deaths in Scotland. The majority of public responses to the inquiry consultation were about care homes.
Relatives responding to the call for views are scathing about the NHS bedclearing policy that led to positive patients being sent into homes. They demanded the policy’s impact be investigated during the inquiry with one describing it as a “national shame” and saying that those responsible must be held accountable and criminal prosecution should not be ruled out.
On e re s p onde r w ro t e about the harrowing death of her mother, asking why health care was denied to her in her final days. She said: “In the early days of the pandemic, many care home residents who tested positive for Covid 19 were treated within
the care home rather than be admitted to hospital.
“This is what happened to my mum. By not being permitted admission to hospital – despite our many requests – she was denied access to oxygen and a fluid drip which may have saved her life.
“Instead, she was administered with paracetamol and end- of- life medication by a GP who wasn’t permitted to attend to her in the care home.
“This, I believe, was a violation of her human rights and must be fully investigated and the relevant bodies be held accountable.”
A ne w b re a k d ow n of hospital discharge figures, obtained by BBC Scotland, shows the individual care homes that took in untested and Covid positive patients.
The data s h ow s 752 homes received untested patients between March 1 and April 21, 2020, and 75 homes allowed in at least one patient who had tested positive and who had never received a negative test prior to discharge.
Dr Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, a membership organisation
for Scotland’s private sector care homes, said: “Whilst this does not offer new data it does indicate the extent to which hospital discharge resulted in specific transfers to particular care homes. What it does not show is the relationship between any specific admission and any outbreak should one have occurred in a particular home.”
Macaskill has called on the Scottish Government to carry out further research into the link between hospital discharges and outbreaks.
The Scottish Government said: “Public engagement on the establishment of a public inquiry into the handling of coronavirus in Scotland has now closed and all responses will be considered ver y carefully. We will continue
to listen to those affected by Cov i d - 1 9 , including bereaved families, on what they wish the public inquiry to focus on.
“Feedback on the draft aims and principles will inform the terms of reference to be agreed between ministers and the chair, once they have been appointed, ahead of the inquiry’s establishment later this year.”