CARE DEATHS ‘A TRAGEDY’ SAYS FM
But Sturgeon denies ‘abject failure’ over testing of staff
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday denied she had ‘failed’ Scotland’s care home staff and residents, while admitting the number of deaths was ‘an absolute tragedy’.
The SNP leader was told by opponents that her approach to care home testing has been an ‘abject failure’.
She faced sustained criticism from opposition politicians after care home workers raised serious concerns about the lack of testing, and said they fear they may be spreading the virus between residents.
Official figures published yesterday show care homes have accounted for 45 per cent of the 3,213 coronavirus deaths in Scotland since the outbreak began, marginally below 48 per cent for hospitals.
Last week, 57 per cent of Covid-19 deaths were in care homes – the third week in a row that they had accounted for a higher proportion of deaths than hospitals.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘The death toll in care homes, not only in Scotland but globally, is an absolute tragedy, and there is not a day nor a minute that goes by when I do not reflect on that.
‘However, this virus is particularly harmful to older people, which is why we have to ensure that our approaches are properly tailored to that environment.’
In a Channel 4 News bulletin, staff at Highgate Care Home in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, where 22 residents have died since the outbreak began, condemned the lack of testing. Support worker Andy Sturgeon said he still had not been tested, adding: ‘I can’t see how a virus like this can go from one end of the home to the other end of the home when both of these people are in their bed. The only reason I can think of is that it is us. We are the carriers.’
Scottish Conservative leader Jackson Carlaw called it an ‘outrage’ that staff had not been tested. He said: ‘Fixing testing must become the Government’s overriding focus, and it is clear that it has not been. It is also clear that the Government could have been more transparent about what it was doing for care homes in the early days of the outbreak. Mistakes were made at the start, and they have led to the excess deaths that we see today.
‘First Minister, in light of the tragedy in Uddingston and others, do you agree that when it comes to testing and care homes, by any standards, this is a failure?’
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘No, I do not. Speaking not as First Minister but as a human being, I deeply regret every single death from this virus.
‘The very first time that I stood in this chamber to talk about what we were dealing with, I said that mistakes would be made. I said that I would make mistakes and that the Government would make mistakes, and I am sure that that is the case.
‘We are dealing with an unprecedented situation. Not a day goes by – probably not an hour goes by right now – when I do not question myself and agonise over the decisions we are taking, in order to ensure that we learn as we go and that we get decisions as right as possible.’
She said testing capacity has been ‘dramatically increased’ and insisted she takes responsibility for ‘all aspects of the Government’s response’.
Yesterday’s figures from the National Records of Scotland show there were 238 Covid-19 deaths in care homes in Scotland last week, 76 fewer than the previous week. Separate figures this week indicated that the proportion of deaths in care homes in England was far lower than Scotland, at 25 per cent.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard called on Miss Sturgeon to provide a ‘guarantee’ that every carer has the right to be tested and that testing stations are taken to staff ‘instead of making the workers go to testing stations’.
Miss Sturgeon said: ‘I put on record my overwhelming gratitude to those in the care home sector... they are doing an extraordinary job in horrendously difficult circumstances.
‘All of us owe them a huge debt of gratitude and we will continue to do everything that we can to support them.’
‘Mistakes were made at the start’