OPPOSITION parties have demanded an urgent statement from Jeane Freeman after it emerged hospital patients with coronavirus were knowingly moved into care homes.

The Health Secretary was urged to explain a practice described as “almost beyond belief”. 

It followed the Sunday Post reporting at least 37 patients across five health boards were discharged to homes after testing positive for Covid at the start of the pandemic.

The Scottish Government has already confirmed 1,431 untested patients were moved to care homes as part of efforts to free up NHS beds between March 1 and April 21, before testing of new care home admissions became mandatory.

But freedom of information requests found 300 patients were tested prior to discharge, and 37 were found to be positive but still transferred to care homes while potentially infectious.

The largest group were were in Ayrshire & Arran (17), followed by Grampian (7), Tayside (6), Fife (4) and Lanarkshire (3).

However several health boards, including Greater Glasgow and Clyde, did not respond to the FoI requests or refused on cost grounds.

At the time, care homes were supposed to isolate new residents for 14 days in case they were positive for Covid, but the transfers were branded reckless. 

Allyson Pollock, professor of public health at Newcastle University, said discharging patients now to have the virus into care homes was “quite shocking”.

She said: “It’s like putting a match to dry tinder and starting a forest fire because we know that infection control measures weren’t good in care homes, we know care homes were understaffed, and we know that older people are very vulnerable to Covid-19.”

Although only containing 1 per cent of Scotland’s population, care homes have been the site of almost half the country’s fatalities, with 1,950 deaths so far.

The Scottish Government refused to comment on the specific claim that infected patients had been knowingly discharged to care homes.

A spokesman said: "There has never been guidance or policy to actively move patients unwell with Covid-19 into care homes. Discharge decisions for individual patients are made by clinicians based on the patient's needs.

"If somebody is discharged to a care home it is because that has been assessed as the best place to meet their needs."

Labour MSP Monica Lennon said: "Confirmation that Covid-19 positive patients were knowingly discharged to care homes is almost beyond belief.

"Why was it deemed acceptable to place infectious people into care homes that didn't have enough PPE and staff, putting vulnerable older people and those who care for them at risk?

"It's right that a human rights-based public inquiry into the care home scandal will take place but we need immediate transparency from Scottish ministers about whether they signed off on this approach, and the care homes involved must be named.

"The secrecy must end, and Jeane Freeman must come to Parliament this week to explain the Scottish Government's actions."

Tory MSP Donald Cameron said: "It is astonishing that we are only finding out what happened now after a newspaper investigation.

"The abject lack of transparency from the SNP Government means we may never find out how many more people were infected when patients with Covid-19 were sent to care homes, and the lessons we should be learning are likely to be lost.

"The families of victims have been grotesquely failed. For months, people have been desperately trying to find out what happened to their loved ones.

"They need answers - why did Nicola Sturgeon not come clean about sending Covid-positive patients to care homes? Why are public health experts forced to beg for information? Why have contact tracers only used customer details for one pub in Aberdeen?

"It's high time the SNP Government answered these very serious questions and started being honest about what's gone wrong and why."

Scottish Liberal Democrat MSP Alex Cole-Hamilton added: “It is now essential that the Scottish Government commissions an independent public inquiry into the handling of the virus so we can learn from the mistakes that may have cost lives before the second wave hits.

“There is no time to wait. This has to be a rapid, future-focused review that keeps more people safe if there is a second wave of the virus.”