SNP’S Covid rules likely to have led to care home deaths

“SEVERE” care-home restrictions imposed by Nicola Sturgeon’s Scottish government caused “great distress” to residents and are “likely” to have contributed to their emotional decline and even death, a report has concluded.

The legal basis for confining residents to their rooms and banning visitors was “unclear”, according to Scotland’s independent public inquiry into the handling of the pandemic.

The report by Edinburgh Napier University found there was “little evidence” in the early months of the Covid outbreak that the human rights of residents and their families were considered.

The research acknowledged that the need for some restrictions was “understandable” given the vulnerability of care home residents, but it concluded that they were arguably discriminated against compared to other citizens.

A second report commissioned by the inquiry from Edinburgh University said half of all Covid-related deaths in Scotland between March and June 2020 had involved care home residents.

It said a lack of testing of hospital patients discharged into homes contributed to outbreaks. Almost 5,000 patients in Scotland were sent to care homes between March 1 and May 31, 2020 as ministers cleared hospital beds for an expected influx of Covid patients.

A policy requiring hospital patients to test negative before transfer was not introduced until April 21, 2020 – six days after the change was made in England.

Prof Colin Mckay, who led the Napier report, said: “There is substantial evidence of the harm and distress caused to residents and their families by the restrictions imposed in care homes.

“This includes concerns that, particularly for people with dementia, being unable to maintain contact with their family exacerbated cognitive and emotional decline, potentially hastening their death.”

The Scottish Government declined to comment.