Hospital discharges into care homes – Scottish Government guidance was stricter and thus it ‘is not exposed to legal liability’

The Scottish Guidance

It is of note, as the Court recognised, that the Scottish equivalent guidance of 26^th March stated that

…[i]f a patient being discharged from hospital is known to have had contact with other COVID- 19 cases and is not displaying symptoms, secondary care staff must inform the receiving facility of the exposure. The receiving facility should ensure the exposed individual is isolated for 14 days following exposure to minimise the risk of a subsequent outbreak within the receiving facility.

This is very close to the Court’s suggestion of what the ‘rational’ and thus ‘lawful’ course would have been for England’s health authorities. As such it suggests that the Scottish government does not share the DHSC’s potential exposure to legal liability for Covid deaths in care homes – at least in the early stages of the pandemic.https://www.futureeconomics.org/2023/06/the-covid-inquiry-and-the-transfer-to-care-homes-case/

Also of interest:

Robert Cuffe, the BBC’s Head of Statistics, suggested in the last few days that those Care Homes that received discharges, actually had a lower rate of Covid.https://talkingupscotlandtwo.com/2021/05/04/those-care-homes-that-received-discharges-actually-had-a-lower-rate-of-covid/

Why? Obvious. They prepared themselves, had bought the PPE and knew how to isolate based on previous flu outbreaks.