According to a report in the Guardian yesterday:
Temporary care workers transmitted Covid-19 between care homes as cases surged, according to an unpublished government study which used genome tracking to investigate outbreaks.
And from BBC Scotland’s website only:
The company at the centre of a care home coronavirus outbreak on Skye says a total of 207 residents have died in its Scottish facilities. HC-One said it had recorded 1,002 suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19 to date in its 56 homes.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-52706376
HC-One have already admitted that they bussed in staff from as far away as Kent their Scottish homes, including Home Farm in Skye.
The obvious question here is why did this Cayman Islands-registered corporate giant which could make massive dividend payments to its shareholders, pay no tax in the UK and pay only poverty wages to its staff not pay to have these people tested before putting them into homes full of the most vulnerable people in the country?
Regardless of any campaign by the opposition parties, in cahoots with BBC Scotland TV and Radio News, the Herald and the Scotsman, to blame the Scottish Government for not testing everyone in care homes, this reveals the truth of the situation. The surge in deaths in Scotland’s care homes is primarily due to the failure of a profit-based care system and it’s inbuilt tendency to maximise income and to minimise costs.
And the surge in deaths in care homes in England and Wales? Silence.
“Over half of all excess deaths during the COVID-19 pandemic are care home residents, according to new LSE research. Adelina Comas-Herrera and Jose-Luis Fernandez of LSE’s Care Policy and Evaluation Centre found that there were nearly 20,000 excess deaths in care homes in England and Wales – those above the five-year average for the period from December 28 to May 1.
This figure is significantly higher than estimates from other sources based on death certificates, as it reflects indirect as well as direct impacts of COVID-19 on mortality. Also, about 15 per cent of deaths of care home residents take place in hospitals, raising the total estimate of the number of COVID-19 related deaths of care home residents to 22,000, a figure which is equivalent to 54% of all excess deaths in England and Wales.”
To read the paper: https://ltccovid.org/2020/05/12/estimates-of-mortality-of-care-home-residents-linked-to-the-covid-19-pandemic-in-england/
LikeLiked by 4 people
There is an odd pattern developing here if I’m not mistaken, the anti-SNP politicians and media develop a scandalous story and encourage the UK journalists to go into a feeding frenzy on SG for days/weeks, only for the exact same scenario to later emerge in England. Can think of at least 5 such hoo-hahs ranging from PPE to Care-Homes to Testing in the last month or so…
Is there a Nike-scandal equivalent about to emerge in England ?
LikeLiked by 3 people
Cheltenham Festival.
LikeLiked by 3 people
It has been like that since the SNP came to power. Usually though it has been the other way round. A story breaks in England and the Unionists up here root around in the dustbin to see if they can find anything even vaguely related involving the SNP/SG. This is then fed to an ever compliant media to run with it. At the beginning there was usually about a 2 week gap as they tried to find something, anything, to distract from the story down south.
Recently, last 2-3 years, it has become ever more noticeable and now it has gone into overdrive as they try to preempt any story that may emerge down south by blanket coverage of a ‘similar’ story here.
Don’t think it is working though. Too many alternative sources of info for people too access. Too many comments below the line in the online editions giving facts and primary sources despite the efforts of the trolls to disrupt the threads.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Ain’t a Nike “scandal”.
LikeLiked by 1 person
https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/markets/article-7428289/Care-home-chain-Barchester-Healthcare-facing-12m-bill-forced-refund-charges.html
John. Enjoy your reporting. Please keep it up. Here is another large care home provider coming to attention in NE Scotland.
LikeLiked by 2 people
“The surge in deaths in Scotland’s care homes is primarily due to the failure of a profit-based care system and it’s inbuilt tendency to maximise income and to minimise costs.”
Exactly right. Nowhere near enough health checking was made at these care homes. Nowhere near enough fact-checking by the English/British nationalist media; their hatred of Scotland is a virulent disease.
LikeLiked by 3 people
Reblogged this on Ramblings of a 50+ Female.
LikeLiked by 1 person
So where most likely did the residents contract covid-19? Were all cases a result of transmission from those discharged from hospitals? If so would we not have been hearing about outbreaks in hospitals? With no track and trace or it will be impossible to tell for certain, but given other likely scenarios is the furore re hospital discharge an intentional distraction?
LikeLike