Residents in Scots care homes ‘were also failed’

SCOTLAND’S Covid care homes scandal deepened yesterday after a ruling that England’s similar mass discharge policy was ‘unlawful’.

The transfer of untested or Covidpositive hospital patients to Scottish care homes in 2020 led to fears it ‘seeded’ the virus in sites where thousands died.

The High Court in London ruled that UK Government moves to send people from hospital to care homes were ‘unlawful’ because they failed to take into account the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from non-symptomatic transmission.

Although the ruling does not directly apply to Scotland it raises major questions over whether the Scottish policy of discharging untested patients to care homes was also unlawful.

Last night, lawyer Aamer Anwar, who represents Covid-bereaved families, said: ‘Whilst the High Court decision is relevant to England, the Scottish Government, health boards and care homes in Scotland should derive no comfort from that, as they made exactly the same catastrophic mistakes that led to the loss of life.’ Scottish Tory social care spokesman Craig Hoy said: ‘Scotland’s care homes bore the brunt of the pandemic and thousands have had to grieve the loss of loved ones as a result of grave mistakes by SNP ministers.’

Scottish Labour deputy leader Jackie Baillie said: ‘Scotland’s care home residents and the staff who cared for them were entirely failed during the pandemic.’

Former Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman, now retired from politics, previously admitted a ‘mistake’ in the manner in which elderly people were moved from hospitals to care homes in spring 2020. But she did not say the decision itself was a mistake.

In October 2020, it emerged in a study by Public Health Scotland that from March 1 to May 31 that year, 113 patients who had tested positive for Covid were discharged to care homes before a further negative test.

Another 3,061 people were sent from hospital to care homes without being tested.

A Scottish Government spokesman said it would examine the court’s findings.

He added: ‘The Scottish Government’s priority throughout the pandemic has been to save lives and we have sought to take the best decisions, based on the best scientific and clinical evidence that we have had at any given time, to keep people in our care homes as safe as possible.’