From BBC Scotland today:
In the early days of the pandemic more than half of elderly hospital patients discharged to nearly 200 Scottish care homes had not been tested for Covid.
Data obtained by the BBC from Public Health Scotland (PHS) provides the clearest picture yet on which homes took in untested and positive patients.
A lawyer acting for bereaved families at an upcoming inquiry called the data “explosive evidence”.
Aamer Anwar claimed it was proof that people’s lives had been put at risk.
The figures, which were released 11 months after BBC Scotland had asked for them, focus on hospital discharges between March and May 2020 – which was the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-58738972
This is September 2021. We knew from the BBC, in June 2020:
Asymptomatic care workers unknowingly spread coronavirus. Large numbers of staff could have been unknowingly spreading coronavirus through care homes, according to the UK’s largest charitable care home provider. Data from MHA shows 42% of its staff members who recently tested positive were not displaying symptoms. Nearly 45% of residents who had a positive test were also asymptomatic. MHA operates in England, Scotland and Wales and has fully tested staff and residents in 86 of its 90 homes so far.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-52912538
This finding was confirmed in July 2020, by the ONS, in a study of 9 081 care homes:
These emerging findings reveal some common factors in care homes with higher levels of infections amongst residents.These include prevalence of infection in staff, some care home practices such as more frequent use of bank or agency nurses or carers, and some regional differences (such as higher infection levels within care homes in London and the West Midlands). There is some evidence that in care homes where staff receive sick pay, there are lower levels of infection in residents.
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/conditionsanddiseases/articles/impactofcoronavirusincarehomesinenglandvivaldi/26mayto19june2020#main-points
In April 2021, Public Health Scotland confirmed that hospital discharges palyed no significant part in the outbreaks: https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/population-health/covid-19/discharges-from-nhsscotland-hospitals-to-care-homes/
A Public Health Wales report did the same.
And, to finish, from Robert Cuffe, BBC Head of Statistics, April 2021:
Care homes that received discharges might actually have seen slightly lower rates of outbreaks.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-56834412
BBC Scotland and a supposedly left-of-centre politician should not be seeking to undermine with misinformation, the work of professionals in hospitals and scientists on behalf of corporate care home owners who neglected their duties and caused death, for profit.
Talking-up Scotland 
Public monies fund private care homes. The council funded places. Many elderly patients would have died in or out of hospital. They were more susceptible to the virus before the vaccine was developed. The elderly are more susceptible to disease, with underlying causes, and are more likely to die from illness. The frailty of the human body. The majority after a long life. Average life expectancy 79. Over 1/2 million die in Britain every year. On average more die in the winter than the summer. 50,000 die in Scotland. Scotland has a more elderly pop by proportion. %. Scotland needs people. Depopulated by Westminster policies for centuries.
Women outlive men by five years, on average, worldwide. Japan 85 years, Spain 84 years. US 76 (gun laws). A good healthy diet. Plenty of fish and vegetables. A Mediterranean diet. Gov can have big influence with health decisions. Life expectancy going down in the south. The first time in forty years. The Tories killing off the elderly. Austerity and Brexit. The Tory Party members, on average, male and over seventy. More susceptible to covid.
Club Tropicana in Dundee on the telly canvassing against the Scottish Gov passport restrictions. Dundee the YES city. Bad for business. Club cares about more about profit than keeping down the virus. Making people ill.
People can vote with their feet and will. Dancing right out the door. Dancing somewhere else. Bad publicity and losing good will is not good for business. Not profitable.
Change the record. Even claiming the Scottish Gov is choosing the music. Bad theme and rhythm. The cocktails are not free. They cost a fortune and alcohol makes folk ill. A mistake in judgement. Time to reflect. Stop spreading the virus and putting a burden on the SNHS. That is not fun and does not bring happiness. To people lying dying and struggling for breath.
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The BBC, Tory donor, appointed head. Has had a £75,000 increase after a year. To over half a million in salary + expenses. The BBC is now charging over 80’s a licence fee. Pensioners living in poverty are paying for this greedy, bigot’s salary increase. Shameless corruption. Milking the public purse.
The BBC costs £5Billion of taxpayers money. Enough to eradicate poverty and give pensioners a proper pension. The administration costs nearly as much as the pay out. The vast BBC estate costs nearly as much as production. It should be sold off. It becomes more and more irrelevant with other forms of streaming entertainment possible. The ‘news’ is just a joke. Westminster propaganda. Other sources give better coverage of world affairs. BBC Westminster controlled propaganda.
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Yes John, read that exhumation this morning and winced “oh no not again”…
Yet note the sneaky wordplay of their “provides the clearest picture yet on which homes took in untested and positive patients”….
The UK “4-Nations” emergency provisions set down what was to be done regarding freeing up hospital beds for the anticipated overload.
Aside dredging for yet more SG negativity, I cannot help wonder if a report in England has or is expected to come out shortly, this has happened previously, Scotland the Squirrel…
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Certain newspapers are keen on League Tables for schools , particularly as Private ones tend to do well . Surely the same logic that applies to these tables should apply to Care Homes ?
However as evidence shows that Public Sector Care Homes have fared so much better than the Private Sector , perhaps they will eschew this idea ?
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James this is a very limited sample of three care homes near me. One is Frank Downie House (and I’m old enough to remember Frank – he lived round the corner) which had no deaths in the three month period but only one discharge – it is Council owned.
Castle View in Dumbarton had 13 discharges and 16 deaths – privately owned.
Crosslet House – also Dumbarton had 6 patients discharged but 11 deaths – Council owned
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The information is given on individual homes, making it difficult to come to any clear understanding from that data. One things seems clear, which is that in rural areas discharged patients didnt lead to deaths at the same rate as in urban areas, which since covid rates were typically lower in the less populated areas is no real surprise.
But to come to any serious conclusion on the basis of this data is a LOT of work.
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And in England? From 21 July 2021:
‘The Care Quality Commission (CQC) is today publishing data showing death notifications involving COVID-19 received from individual care homes between 10 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.’
“The data on the number of death notifications involving COVID-19 from care homes across all regions published today is presented alongside government data on all COVID-19 deaths. This is because care homes are part of the local community and are impacted when COVID-19 is prevalent in the local area.”
Except in Scotland?
(https://www.cqc.org.uk/news/releases/care-quality-commission-publishes-data-showing-death-notifications-involving-covid-19 )
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