HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman has pointed the finger at private care home owners for not following Scottish Government guidance - as she refused to rule out introducing routine testing for health and social care workers.
Ms Freeman was quizzed in Holyrood by Labour Highlands MSP Rhoda Grant over an outbreak at the Home Farm care home on Skye at the weekend.
It was revealed that 30 residents at Home Farm had been confirmed as having the disease, with three residents having died.
There have been a total of 57 confirmed cases of Covid-19 at the Portree home, with 27 staff also affected.
Ms Grant said she has been told by a constituent with a relative in the care home that issues had been raised previously “about the lack of PPE for staff” and over “temporary staff being taken in from other homes without a period of isolation”.
READ MORE: Coronavirus: New care home residents arriving without negative results amid Skye outbreak
The Health Secretary stressed that the guidance for care home operators was “really clear”.
She said every case of Covid-19 in a care home is a “tragic event” but pointed out 70% of care homes are run by private companies, with about 20% run by independent providers and 10% under the control of local authorities.
“So our capacity to intervene directly is limited,” Ms Freeman said.
Ms Freeman added: “Many of the issues that members are raising are issues where private care home providers, where the majority of the outbreaks are, private care home providers have not, in some instances, appeared to follow the guidance that we require them to follow.
READ MORE: Coronavirus in Scotland: Care home deaths now average one every 30 minutes
“That is why as a government, we are taking a more direct intervention route in those cases.”
The Health Secretary also confirmed routine testing of front line staff could be implemented “if the advice we receive indicates that that is exactly the right thing we should do”.
Labour’s Neil Findlay said: “The system of testing from the outset has been one of the greatest failings of the strategy to address this crisis.”
Scottish Greens co-leader Alison Johnstone pressed Ms Freeman on the issue, demanding to know why tests are not being carried out on more care workers.
She hailed those working in care homes, saying: “The predominantly female, low-paid social care workforce deserve every protection we can give them, we are all aware how these dedicated staff have gone above and beyond the call of duty throughout this crisis to support those they care for.”
Ms Johnstone said the trade union Unison had claimed “this workforce are terrified of passing on the virus between patients”.
She said: “Regularly testing these workers would ease anxiety, it would reduce the spread and it would prevent unnecessary isolation.
“Testing capacity continues to go unused every day. This week alone, thousands of tests that could have been taken up have gone unused so why is the Government so reluctant to address this issue?”
READ MORE: Coronavirus: Hugh Pennington: Mistakes made over testing, PPE and care homes
She told Ms Freeman research has already shown weekly testing for at-risk workers, such as care staff, could reduce the spread of Covid-19 from this group by a third.
The Health Secretary said: “I am not ruling out the regular testing of health and social care staff, if the advice we receive indicates that that is exactly the right thing we should do more than we are doing at the moment.”
She said “enhanced outbreak investigations” are being carried out in homes where there has been a confirmed case of Covid-19, meaning all residents and staff there will be tested.
The Health Secretary also said sample testing was carried out in homes where there have not been any cases as part of surveillance work.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel