Scandal of care homes ‘bullied’ into taking on Covid patients
Fears existed over losing funding for speaking out
A NURSE who quit over safety issues claims nursing homes were “bullied” into accepting patients who had tested positive for Covid. Lesley Roberts said First Minister Nicola Sturgeon must respond to an English court’s ruling that it was unlawful to move patients from hospitals to care homes without them being Covid tested. The 55-year-old said the actions of the Scottish Government were “unlawful, unreasonable, irrational and cost lives”. In a letter to Sturgeon, Lesley listed a catalogue of concerns she had tried to raise in the pandemic.
The nurse was also the ward infection controller and a union rep with responsibility for health and safety. She told Sturgeon how she had been contacted by a number of local care homes.
She said: “One home in particular told me that they had been threatened by the local authority into accepting patients testing positive for the virus.
“They told me appalling stories about patients arriving in ambulances that were ‘apparently’ tested before leaving hospital and were said to be testing negative for the virus and then tested positive in the back of the ambulance.
“Many homes were frightened to speak out due to the intimidation that they described to me and how this could potentially affect further funding from the local authority regarding residents who were unable to pay privately for their own care.”
Lesley told Sturgeon she had been contacted by a member of staff about the discharge of patients. She said: “He told me that patients were being discharged from hospital into care homes without any testing or even if testing positive they were being discharged anyway.”
She went on to tell Sturgeon how she had great concerns about care staff and the mass distribution of “unsafe masks”.
Labour’s health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “The SNP
Government and First Minister must be held to account for this scandalous and illegal practice.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “All policy decisions and guidance were made on the best clinical and public health advice and latest scientific evidence available at the time.
“The First Minister will write to Ms Roberts in due course.”