Expert’s anger at care errors
Prof says mistakes cost lives in whole of the UK
Thousands of lives were lost in care homes because Scotland copied the UK Government’s disastrous mistakes, according to a leading virus expert.
Hugh Pennington, emeritus professor of bacteriology at Aberdeen University, said Holyrood leaders repeated the same devastating errors as Westminster.
Ex-Downing Street adviser Dominic Cummings last week blamed Prime Minister Boris Johnson for tens of thousands of Cov id- 19 fatalities.
At least 3317 care home residents died after being infected with Covid-19 north of the Border – a third of the total 10,114 UK victims.
Pennington singled out the failure to lock down quickly enough and a decision to allow untested patients to be sent into care homes as key blunders.
He said : “Al l the same arguments about England apply to Scotland. We followed all the same policies, we had the same lockdown dates and had the same problems with care homes.
“The issue of hospital patients being discharged without a Covid test in England applied here in exactly the same way.
“Staff also weren’t being tested and many worked in more than one care home
“They didn’t have symptoms and were not being tested so it wasn’t their fault but it happened. These factors were important and it took a long time to sorted out.”
Pennington, who led an inquiry into Scotland’s E Coli outbreak in 1996, added: “We knew from previous experience with other bugs that people l iving in care homes were vulnerable.
“Once the virus got in, it would go on the rampage.
“For a long time the Scottish Government said it was not worth testing asymptomatic people and that was just plain wrong. “What Dominic Cummings said about it being nonsense to claim there was a protective ring a rou nd ca re homes was correct. We had exactly the same problem.”
Pennington – who has advised by the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments on viruses and food safety – said: “You can argue about the precise numbers but thousands of lives may not have been lost if there had been a proper testing regime.”
In April 2020, the Sunday Mail revealed how untested hospital patients were being discharged to care homes.
Government guidance was updated two days later – with two negative test results needed before transfers took place.
But the practice continued while residents’ families were locked out and restrictions remain in place.
Meanwhile, former health secretary Jeane Freeman has provoked outrage by speaking of her “personal hurt” at criticism over the way she handled Covid outbreaks in care homes.
In an interview last week, she was asked about opponents portraying the discharge of untested patients to homes as a “death sentence”.
She said: “It hurts at a personal level that anyone would think I would do such a thing and it makes me angry as it’s not fair.”
Dad-of-four Campbell Duke, whose wife Anne, 62, is in care
and caught Covid during the first wave, said: “I think for the sake of common decency a period of self-imposed silence might have been more appropriate from Jeane Freeman.
“I’m not interested in a blame game but thousands of people died and families are still not being given access to loved ones in care homes.
“It’s diff icult to l isten to Freeman talk about her hurt feelings because a great number of us continue to suffer.
“The Scottish Government had the opportunity to do things differently and failed to do so.
“Anne remains under lock and key in a care home. She caught
Covid and could have died had I not insisted she be taken to hospital.”
The Sunday Ma i l ha s campaigned for Anne’s Law – named after Anne Duke, who has dementia. New legislation would give families legal rights to visit their loved ones.
Law changes have been backed by all of Scotland’s main political parties and the SNP has promised to introduce it. But families still remain restricted to two short visits a week.
Campbell added: “Freeman was in the Communist Party and the Labour Party before arriving at the SNP. It’s ironic she proved to be more a creature of government bureaucracy than a reforming progressive.
“My wife’s treatment hasn’t been as a consequence of a vast and complex public health dilemma. It’s the result of dreadful discrimination and marginalisation against the frail and elderly.
“Someone needs to take responsibility for that and put things right.”
Scot t ish Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie said: “Decisions about emptying hospitals and transferring people to care homes, without testing for Covid, were made by Scottish Ministers.
“It’s essential that there is a public inquiry in Scotland tland sooner rather than laterr and Ministers are held to account.” ount.”
A Holyrood spokeswoman man said: “The Scottish Government ment will continue to reflect onn the handl ing of the Covv id pandemi c and a full independent public inquiry uiry will consider all aspects of that, including the impact on care homes and their residents.”