END THE TROLLEY DASH
Country’s most vulnerable beg First Minister to help access delivery slots
PENSIONERS and vulnerable Scots being shielded from coronavirus say they are struggling to get quick access to essential food deliveries.
Concerns about a national scheme with the supermarkets were raised with Nicola Sturgeon yesterday at an unusual First Minister’s Questions session which saw leaders appear by webcam.
Scots Tory leader Jackson Carlaw highlighted the plight of Fife resident Leanne Tervit, who said her 72-year-old mum Margaret, who has had three transplants, sepsis and pneumonia, can’t get vital daily items.
In a statement, Leanne said: “The only way I can get a delivery slot is by checking all the big supermarkets several times a day in the hope one opens up.
“I’m a member of a couple of UK transplant support groups and when the letters telling us to shield came out, the people in England could register and are able to get priority delivery slots online.
“There are people in Scotland with no support, so their only alternative is to risk going out to the shops when that’s specifically against official advice.”
Sturgeon said about 4200 packages of food and essential items have been delivered free to “shielded” people unable to leave their home at all in the pandemic.
The 136,000 people identified as most vulnerable have all been contacted offering help to get medicine and, if requested, free food deliveries.
Of those, 21,000 have registered for the support service, Sturgeon said.
Sturgeon said texts were due to go out to people who registered for support so supermarkets can access details and place them on a priority list “in the early part of next week”.
She added: “People do not have to rely on normal supermarket slots because the national contract that is in place with Brakes and Bidfood will mean people get these food boxes delivered free of charge if they register for that service and ask for that service to be delivered to them.”