A shameful, unforgivable criminal act that cost lives
Sarwar attacks decision to send untested patients to care homes:
NICOLA Sturgeon yesterday refused to accept that sending untested hospital patients into Scotland’s care homes was unlawful.
She was responding to a High Court ruling in England that insisted a similar practice there during the pandemic created risks for vulnerable residents.
But Scottish Labour leader Anas Sarwar accused the First Minister of an ‘extraordinary and unthinkable answer’ and described the policy as a ‘shameful, unforgivable, criminal act that cost lives in Scotland’.
Miss Sturgeon allowed almost 3,000 untested patients to be transferred to hospitals at the start of the pandemic, but refused to accept the decision may have caused additional and unnecessary deaths.
Challenged on the ruling in England, Miss Sturgeon admitted her government’s approach was ‘broadly similar’ but claimed there was ‘no clear statistical evidence’ from Public Health Scotland hospital discharges were associated with care home outbreaks.
At First Minister’s Questions, Mr Sarwar asked whether she would acknowledge that the decision was ‘unlawful, unreasonable, irrational and cost lives’.
He added: ‘By the time the Government changed guidance on April 21, nearly 3,000 untested people and 75 known positive cases had already been transferred into Scotland’s care homes.
‘Does the First Minister accept, in the words of the families affected and impacted, that this was a shameful, unforgivable, criminal act that cost lives in Scotland?’
Miss Sturgeon replied: ‘No, I don’t accept that, although these are matters now, rightly and properly, that will be scrutinised by the public inquiry that is under way in Scotland and, of course, the parallel
‘Extraordinary and unthinkable’ Residents in Scots care homes ‘were also failed’ From yesterday’s Mail
public inquiry that will take place into these matters UK-wide.’
She also told MSPs the consequences of the pandemic were ‘embedded in my soul’ and said: ‘That does not mean my decisions and my actions and those of my government should in any way not be subject to scrutiny.’
Yesterday morning, Deputy First Minister John Swinney told Holyrood’s Covid-19 recovery committee that the Scottish Government will ‘consider carefully’ the High Court ruling, as would the Scottish Covid inquiry led by Lady Poole.
He expressed ‘deep regret and sympathy’ to everyone who had lost a loved one in a care home but said the judgment reflected circumstances in England that were ‘not directly comparable’.
In England, the legal action against the UK Government was led by Cathy Gardner and Fay Harris, whole fathers died in care homes. Judges ruled it was ‘irrational’ for the Government not to have advised that asymptomatic patients should isolate from existing residents for 14 days after admission.
Bereaved families and care groups said the ruling proves the ‘protective ring’ then Health Secretary Matt Hancock said had been put around care homes was ‘non-existent’, a ‘sickening lie’ and a ‘joke’.
Lord Justice Bean and Mr Justice Garnham concluded that policies contained in documents released in March and early April 2020 were unlawful because they ‘simply failed to take into account the highly relevant consideration of the risk to elderly and vulnerable residents from asymptomatic transmission’.