The First Minister and the Health Secretary have both now been open and honest enough to admit that had they known then what they know now, they would not have moved more than 900 elderly, but fit enough for discharge, patients into care homes without them first being tested.
It was a well-intentioned act to protect hospitals against a surge of covid cases that many believed might happen and against a background of expert opinion, from Public Health England, that the risk of infection in care homes was ‘very unlikely.’
The First Minister and the Health Secretary are right to admit errors made in such complex and changing circumstances and to take responsibility, but they were only part a decision-making process where politicians must surely be able to rely on their expert advisers and, critically, on the care home owners to look after the vulnerable people they are paid to care for.
On average, each care home took, voluntarily, only two additional residents: https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2020/05/17/fact-check-there-was-no-spike-in-care-home-admissions-in-march-triggering-mass-deaths/
With care home fees at around £1000 per person per week and care staff on minimum wages, these businesses must surely have been able to afford the space, support and PPE needed to isolate these new arrivals and to protect the other residents with proper infection control.
https://ukcareguide.co.uk/care-home-costs/
That some care homes failed to implement basic infection control is already emerging in reports. More will follow.
Tom Gordon, mentions none of the above and of course chooses his language carefully to imply guilt on behalf of the ministers. So we hear:
The transfers took place when the Scottish Government was desperate to free hospital beds in anticipation of a “tsunami” of coronavirus patients.
‘Desperate’ or working hard on our behalf?
Amid fears the transfers could spread the virus across Scotland’s 1000 or so care homes, opposition parties demanded mandatory testing for would-be residents for weeks. However the Scottish Government did not bring in mandatory testing until April 21.
I’ve searched hard. The earliest I can find is 15th April by Jackson Carlaw, only six days before, then Richard Leonard on the 16th.
In a particularly ill-informed or dishonest and one, he writes:
She also claimed leaving those elderly people in hospital may exposed them to “enormous risk”, despite the superior PPE and infection control regimes in hospitals.
So, like Gordon Brewer, he seems not to get it. It’s not about physical risk but about mental health. Many of these patients have dementia and hospitals can be incredibly difficult places for them. Research by Marie Curie Cancer Care, in 2015 found:
Spending periods of time in hospital can be extremely distressing for people
with dementia. Research has shown that those admitted to hospital with dementia are more likely to die during an admission and in the six
months after their hospital admission. [16]
I didn’t have to find that to know it. The Chief Nursing Officer has made the point repeatedly at the briefings.
Perhaps most important for this discussion, Public Health England have concluded that temporary care home workers were likely to be responsible for the spread of the infection.
The Skye care home deaths suggest the same cause.
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Well presented piece.
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John,
I am a bit puzzled by the numbers quoted as having been discharged in March. I have seen them quoted elsewhere too.
Public Health Scotland collects data on the monthly numbers of delayed Discharges and the reports are published on the ISD Scotland web site. According to their Feb 2020 report there were 1627 patients delayed in Hosp at the census point which is the last Thurs in the month.
The March 2020 report stated there were 1171 delayed patients at the census points. That is 456 patients discharged.
https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Health-and-Social-Community-Care/Publications/index.asp?#2674
Apparently Health and Social Care also count delayed discharges. Double accounting?
The first case of Covid19 in Scotland was confirmed on 1st March. It was the 16th March before every health board in Scotland bar Orkney and Western Isles had any cases. The number of confirmed cases at that point was 171. Therefore patients being discharged into care homes in the first half of the month had a very good chance of being discharged from hospitals that did not have any, or very few, Covid patients. In some ways you can see why the advice might have been not to test.
Furthermore on 12th March the test and trace was abandoned and only hospital patients with suspected Covid were to be tested. This may have been decided because PHE were having trouble supplying enough test kits. The test was one developed in the UK. It was in use by PHE from the off but Scotland was not provided with supplies of the test until Feb 10th. Until then all samples had to go to a PHE lab in London and even after tests were carried out in Scotland, at GRI and ERI labs, any positive results had to be sent to the PHE lab for confirmation.
Apart from the problems with supply of the test kits, and swabs for sampling, the test itself was not very accurate. About 70% – 75% accuracy. Around April 21-23rd labs were instructed to change to commercial tests which were much more accurate.
So a complex picture with all sorts of layers and certainly not as straight forward as the opposition parties are trying to make out in their endless pursuit of SNP bad.
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Surely any care home resident returning from hospital during a pandemic, would have been put into isolation for the required amount of time?
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Care homes are an easy target.
You won’t hear a peep from HM press here in Scotland about our inability to close our borders,instigate lockdown or the responsibility of the private sector “care” industry for care in their homes.
Wonder why?
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They will also make sure people forget that the Eng (UK) Gov actually attempted, deliberately, to stop companies accepting orders from Scotland, for PPE, both in the UK and via companies abroad. An utter disgrace, basically an attempt to sanction Scotland, like the US does to countries like Venezuela, they stop meds getting in, and food, and make sure other countries sanction them as well. It’s basically bullying, country on country to get at their resources of course.
Scotland is at the mercy of a dangerous cabal in government of their next door country. It’s not a good situtaion to be in to say the least.
The Scottish government are working hard to stem the damage, especially during this terrible crisis, but it’s like some nightmare scenario, where whatever positive work they do, there are many who will cry fowl especially via their compliant so called mass media. ( more like mass hysteria).
The Scottish Britnats at Holyrood though should hang their heads in shame, they are a disgrace for dancing to the tune of their London masters for self gain.
Hell mend ’em.
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