Revealed: 200 patients died after catching Covid-19 INSIDE hospital
But Freeman ‘said nothing’ claim MSPs
MORE than 200 people have died after catching coronavirus while being treated for other conditions in Scots hospitals.
The tragic toll emerged last night, sparking another government secrecy row which threatens to engulf under-fire Health Secretary Jeane Freeman.
Nearly 1,000 hospital patients who were being treated for other illnesses developed Covid-19 symptoms, with 218 dying from the disease over the past 11 weeks. It is feared many of the 908 infected people were transferred to care homes, where the virus spread.
Ministers admitted the scale of hospital infections and deaths only after media pressure.
It is the latest secrecy row to hit Nicola Sturgeon’s Government, which is already accused of a ‘cover up’ over a Covid-19 outbreak at a Nike conference in Edinburgh in February.
The latest revelation also sparks concern about NHS Scotland infection control procedures and the supply and use of personal protective equipment (PPE).
Last night, politicians accused Ms Freeman of trying to hide the scale of hospital-based infections and called for an urgent public inquiry.
Scottish Labour health spokesman Monica Lennon said: ‘Nicola Sturgeon and Jeane Freeman should have been up front from the beginning. It’s scandalous that this information had to dragged out of the Scottish Government. They should be ashamed they said nothing for so long.’
On Thursday, Ms Freeman confirmed that there had been 125 ‘incidents’ of coronavirus infection in ‘non-Covid’ wards between March 18 and June 3. She did not define what ‘incidents’ meant.
Now, it has been revealed that the 125 ‘incidents’ could be described as outbreaks, as 908 patients were infected by either staff or asymptomatic carriers.
A total of 218 of those patients have died of the disease.
It is also feared the 125 outbreaks could be directly linked to the spread of coronavirus in care homes – as they occurred around the same time almost 1,500 elderly patients were moved from hospitals back into residential homes.
Last night, Scottish Tory health spokesman Miles Briggs said: ‘It is utterly shocking how misleading the SNP Government has been regarding the number of hospital cases of Covid, and the number of deaths from those cases. Families across Scotland demand to know the truth. The Health Secretary must now answer if these deaths were known about prior to the mass exodus to care homes, how the virus spread within hospitals and if patients’ families have been informed fully.’
Ms Lennon has demanded an urgent independent inquiry into the spread of Covid-19 in hospitals.
According to the Scottish Government, on average for each of the 125 ‘incidents’ of coronavirus recorded, more than seven patients were affected.
This means 6 per cent of all of Scotland’s coronavirus cases may have first become unwell in hospital while being treated for noncoronavirus-related conditions.
But sources within the Scottish Government argued they were not certain that all of the patients had contracted the disease in hospital.
One insider said: ‘It is not yet possible to confirm with the accuracy required whether or not patients connected to the incidents acquired the infection in hospital, or whether they acquired it in the community.’
The revelations come as the Scottish Government faces stinging criticism for only introducing mandatory testing of hospital patients transferred to care homes on April 21. The mass exodus of elderly people from hospital into nursing homes in March and April has been blamed for the catastrophic death rate in the facilities.
In March, 921 patients were sent back into Scotland’s care homes, while in April, 510 were returned.
There have been around 1,818 Covid deaths registered in care homes – higher than the death toll in hospitals, which stands at 1,815.
Last night, Ms Lennon said: ‘These outbreaks coincide with older people being discharged from hospitals into care homes.
‘An urgent independent inquiry is needed. We need to know how many of the patients who were infected in these hospital outbreaks were discharged into care homes, in the rush to empty the hospitals, and did any die from the infection.’
The Scottish Government is already accused of a ‘cover up’ over a coronavirus outbreak at a Nike conference in Edinburgh in February. It knew 25 delegates had tested positive for Covid-19 – a ‘notifiable disease’ – after the event but the information was not made public.
Experts say the outbreak may have been Scotland’s ‘ground zero’.
Officials said they did not mention it due to concerns around patient confidentiality. It comes as the Scotbe
‘Families across Scotland demand to know truth’
tish Government is embroiled in yet another secrecy row, after it claimed that Ms Sturgeon did not receive written briefings from health officials early in the Covid-19 crisis.
In response to a freedom of information request, it said it could not publish briefings provided by the Chief Medical Officer and the National Clinical Director because there were none.
The Government said the advisers shared no written briefings with Ms Freeman at the time. Ms Sturgeon claimed she had received ‘lots of briefings and lots of advice’ in ways other than written communications.
Meanwhile, the new hospital-acquired infection statistics have not only raised questions about the spread of Covid-19 into care homes, but also sparked concerns about NHS Scotland infection control practices and its use of PPE.
Last night, Miss Lennon said: ‘The Scottish Government has been too slow in providing PPE, too slow in providing testing and too slow in telling the truth. It’s vital that all hospital outbreaks and deaths connected to them are properly investigated by the Crown Office and Police Scotland, where appropriate.’
A Scottish Government spokesman said: ‘Any claims that the Scottish Government has sought to mislead or hide figures are utterly unfounded.’
IT’S been nearly 11 weeks since we were told that what we had previously thought of as normal daily life was to be shut down. Most of the activities we enjoyed would be off the menu: restaurants, hairdressers, dinner parties, garden centres, multi-generational family gatherings, sport.
When Boris announced lockdown that evening of March 23, I remember being frightened. This was going to be horrific. But the fact is that for many of us – the luckier ones who have been able to leave our homes from time to time and who haven’t suffered the loss of someone close – it has been perfectly bearable. Even, whisper who dare, slightly enjoyable.
Yes, it’s been mind-numbingly dull on occasions when all you have to look forward to is deciding what to cook for dinner. It’s been challenging to spend acres of time only with people in the same household, unleavened by the physical company of others.
It’s certainly been hugely demanding on couples who have been having to home school while both have also been working full-time from home. And it’s been occasionally anxiety-inducing when we poke our noses outside our immediate picket fences and imagine what might be out there when we emerge into a full-on recession with the virus still lurking.
But I believe there’s also a Stockholm syndrome mentality gaining hold – the condition where hostages form an attachment to their captors, and feel safer in their company than when free.
They stop wanting to be released. And as the lockdown levers are shifted allowing us more freedom, a huge number of people are feeling something similar.
The initial lockdown rules absolved us from responsibility. We were told what we had to do – stay at home – and in most cases we did. We formed our own little hubs, shrank our lives, took up making elderflower cordial and inhaled box sets. Grandparents missed their grandchildren, parents missed their own parents but we consoled ourselves with the thought that all this wouldn’t last for ever.
And it hasn’t. Next week, shops are reopening in England, certain school year groups are back, grandchildren are now allowed in the garden. But are we all jumping at these opportunities? Not with the alacrity you might expect. Stockholm syndrome is driven by a potent combination of fear, trust and acceptance. After nearly three months of having our independence denied, there is a very real temptation to succumb to helplessness; to prefer the more mindless enclosure of lockdown to the burden of having to make deliberate risk-reward calculations as to what our own next steps might be.
It’s not helped by the fact that the information we are given to base our choices on often leaves us feeling as if we’re entering a hall of mirrors – with a different distortion depending on who you listen to.
Face masks, for example – only a few weeks ago dismissed as pointless – will soon be mandatory on public transport south of the Border. The NHS contacttracing app we were promised as a world-beating solution seems to have gone AWOL with no widely agreed ‘upand-running’ date. Knowing how much we don’t know and how little our
Government appears to know, certainly encourages us to be fearful. But ultimately we all have to grab the opportunities to move away from the stagnation of lockdown if we want our future lives to flourish.
A cosmetic fairy tale I couldn’t make up
WHEN I first met make-up artist Charlotte Tilbury about 20 years ago, I would have considered her one of the very last people to build a $1 billion business. So far, so wrong since her eponymous makeup line has just been sold to a big conglomerate, netting her personally in the region of £500 million.
Not bad for a party-loving, creamy-skinned redhead brought up between an English boarding school and Happy Valley-style Ibiza, where her parents Lance and Patsy would house-sit for stars such as everyone’s favourite cad actor Terry-Thomas. Scattering ‘darlings’ in her breathy voice, crystals dangling in her bosomy cleavage and staggering around in maxi dresses and platform shoes, Charlotte could easily have been mistaken for the archetypal hippydippy chick. Certainly she didn’t look like the formidable businesswomen she has turned out to be.
Her success began with her deft way with the contour brush on fashion shoots but was helped by her gregarious and chatty personality.
Campy and gushing but funny and ready with a dash of high-class gossip, she was never daunted by the famous faces she was touching up.
And, in the Noughties, as Ibiza and its small sister island Formentera became the summer playgrounds of the famous and wealthy, her insider knowledge of the scene there, where she still spent weekends and holidays, became as sought after as her way with a cat’s eye flick.
The Ibiza factor paid off. When she told friends, sharing the dawn speedboat home after a night of island partying, of her dream of launching a company selling moviestar glamour in a jar, many of them became the vital early investors willing to give a helping hand to their guide to the Balearic beat.
Now she’s sold to the Spanish fragrance and fashion group Puig in a mega-bucks deal, they’ll have every reason to celebrate too.
Those hairy hipsters are facing the chop
MEN in their 20s and 30s often choose to go unshaven. These beards are denser than designer stubble but less than the whole ZZ Top. Think Bradley Cooper with a dash of Jesus as a template.
But this yen for facial hair could be about to change. I guarantee that nothing will have them rushing back to the Gillette than discovering that during lockdown thousands of oldies have adopted the style and are emerging from confinement like a nation of grizzled Captain Birds Eyes. After all, no guy wants to discover they’ve started to look just like their dad.
How did I manage to waste the lockdown?
WHAT’S happened to all that time we were going to have over these past weeks? How come I’ve achieved so little? The plans for knitting, jigsaws, photo albums, deep-cleaning have been a dismal non-starter. All I am going to have to show for it is so much homemade chicken stock that the freezer is about to give up.
Cold comfort of a miserable summer
THERE’S something reassuring about the great British weather returning to the old normal. Drizzle and cardies – how cosily familiar. At least that’s something we can rely upon.