On ITV’s Peston, 15th July, the Labour MP for Hove, Peter Kyle said:
Where you look at some areas where Scotland has complete control over such as social care, there was greater loss of life in care homes in Scotland than even in England and Wales….Ian Murray was screaming about this from the rooftops.
As Scotland’s only Labour MP, Ian Murray is both insignificant and influential. English Labour MPs trust him as their only source of information on what happens in Scotland. He can say what he likes. They’re not going to ask him to prove it.
Kyle’s statement above is all wrong. Here’s the truth:
Data from research by LSE, reported on May 14th in Care Home Professional:
More than 22 000 care home residents in England and Wales have died during the coronavirus pandemic, according to new research. In a new paper, the LSE said data on deaths had underestimated the impact of the pandemic on care home residents as it did not take into account the indirect mortality effects of the pandemic and/or because of problems with the identification of the disease as the cause of death. The paper said current data only accounted for an estimated 41.6% of all excess deaths in care homes.
Research estimates put ‘real’ care home COVID-19 death toll at over 22,000
In Scotland, up to 17th May there were 1 623 deaths in care homes where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.
https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/covid19stats
The population of England and Wales is 59 million, 10.7 times that of Scotland at 5.5 million so, all things being equal you might expect the death rate there to be 10.7 times 1 623 or 17 366.
So, the actual care home death rate in Scotland by mid-May, based on the LSE research was 21% lower than in England & Wales.
Kyle, MP for Hove, has more to worry about locally:
Readers may remember when we were first to comment on the inspection report for the Skye care home and draw attention to infection control issues in it. We looked for further evidence of such in the reports for other Scottish care homes but found nothing.
Even in Skye there was nothing like this:
Adelina Comas-Herrera and her group have been writing about the impact of covid19on care homes across the world and on other aspects of the disease on people in care. This link is to one aspect of the work and other parts of her work can be accessed from the link
https://ltccovid.org/country-reports-on-covid-19-and-long-term-care/
The report on the impact of covid 19 on care homes in England is here
it is to be updated later by information from the ONS. I provide this link to the latest ONS report I could find..
https://blog.ons.gov.uk/2020/07/09/covid-19-and-the-impact-on-social-care/
The report on the impact of covid19 on Scottish care homes is here.It has not been updated since I first posted the link
file:///home/chronos/u-bfa71b552ac01fef3ea09afefce553608b959a06/MyFiles/Downloads/Deaths-in-Scottish-care-homes-3rd-June-update-2.pdf
Rep[orts are also available on Wales and NI
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Is Mr Murray referring to carehomes like those in the south east of Scotland run by Scottish Borders Council who’s leader is his comrade-in-arms Cllr Shona Haslam of the Tories?
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Murray is really beginning to look like a MI5 stooge
Know thy Foe
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Some Scots believe that all politicians lie.
That is a reasonable assumption when all you have been exposed to are Scottish unionists.
All they have ever had to justify Scotland being subsumed in Greater England is lies and deceit.
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John, have you shared this post with Robert Peston? Think you should, in the interests of his education about Scotland.
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I did and the Lab MP
No reply so far
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