The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
MSPS demand answers on care home referrals
FM pressed on reports virus patients were knowingly discharged there from hospital
Nicola Sturgeon and her health secretary Jeane Freeman have been asked to urgently address MSPS amid reports coronavirus-positive hospital patients were knowingly discharged into Scottish care homes.
An investigation by the Sunday Post found at least five health boards moved patients with Covid-19 into care homes around the time lockdown was imposed in March.
The Scottish Government confirmed 1,431 untested patients were moved to care homes between March 1 and April 21 before testing of new admissions became mandatory.
It has now been reported that at least 37 people who tested positive for the disease were still discharged into care homes. The number is made up of 17 people in Ayrshire and Arran, seven in Grampian, six in Tayside, four in Fife and three in Lanarkshire.
NHS Lothian and NHS Highland did not respond to requests, while NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it discharged 752 patients but it would be too expensive to check records to confirm how many had tested positive.
The current coronavirus confirmed death toll in Scotland’s care homes sits at 1,950, around 46% of all deaths from the virus.
Some facilities have lost more than 20 residents to Covid-19 since the pandemic began.
Scottish Labour leader Richard Leonard said the latest revelation was “nothing short of a scandal” and called on the health secretary to appear before MSPS “as a matter of urgency to explain why this disastrous and dangerous practice was allowed to happen”.
The party’s health spokeswoman Monica Lennon said Covid-19-positive patients “knowingly discharged” to care homes was “almost beyond belief”.
A spokesman for NHS Grampain said patient confidentiality meant the health board was unable to confirm where individuals were sent.
NHS Tayside said patients were discharged “following a clinical assessment and in liaison with each care home” and in line with what hospital doctors believed would be the “most appropriate care environment for these patients”.
The Scottish Government has faced a weekend of questions and accusations of a lack of transparency following criticism from Edinburgh University’s professor Linda Bauld over its handling of coronavirus data.
On Saturday, it was revealed just one Aberdeen pub had been contacted for its customer lists despite Nicola Sturgeon insisting all contacts had been traced within three days.