Labour’s Monica Lennon has backed a united call from opposition parties demanding that an immediate public inquiry into care home deaths take place.
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly said such cases will be included when an inquiry into the Scottish Government’s handling of the pandemic takes place.
But a Conservative motion rejecting this approach – arguing instead there should be an “immediate public inquiry to find out what happened in Scotland’s care homes during the course of the pandemic, which resulted in the deaths of more than 2000 residents” – was passed by 64 votes to one.
Ms Lennon has repeatedly demanded answers over 23 COVID-related deaths at Whitehills Care Home in East Kilbride at the height the first wave of the pandemic – calling on the Lord Advocate to investigate them along with all care home deaths in Scotland.
She reported operators – Thistle Healthcare LTD – to the Care Inspectorate due to the high number of deaths but said their findings, which praised infection control practices and cleanliness in the home, as a “box-ticking exercise”.
The family of an 89-year-old long-term resident who died when COVID swept through Whitehills last week slammed a report from Public Health Scotland (PHS) which concluded, statistically, that discharges from hospitals were not the biggest factor in outbreaks in care homes.
And just last month the News also revealed that almost 30 positive cases of COVID have been confirmed at Lindsayfield Lodge in the town’s Rosaburn Avenue.
Twenty-two patients and five members of staff have returned positive tests.
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The care home boss also confirmed there had been seven deaths at the home as a result of COVID-19 throughout the pandemic.
Health spokeswoman Monica Lennon backed the Tory motion, arguing an immediate inquiry is in the public interest.
She said: “What has happened in our care homes this year has been a national scandal.
“Never again can we have a situation where people who are positive with COVID-19 are being discharged into care homes, into an environment with other vulnerable people.
“No-one is looking for a blame game to happen here but we need transparency, we need openness.”
Tory health spokesman Donald Cameron said: “This Government’s failure to protect Scotland’s most vulnerable people is a scandal.
“It is clear to us and others in this chamber that only
an immediate public
inquiry will hold minsters to account and give grieving families the answers they deserve.”
An amendment from health secretary Jeane Freeman saying a coronavirus public inquiry should be held “as quickly as is practicable, once the country is through the immediacy of dealing with the pandemic” was narrowly rejected, with MSPs voting by 60 votes to 62 against this.
Ms Freeman said: “A public inquiry is undoubtedly important, no disagreement on that.
“But right now, in the middle of the pandemic, with all the resources in care homes and the NHS stretched severely, this is not the time to divert any resource to setting up an immediate public inquiry.”
