The Covid-19 hospitals scandal is posing big questions for the Scottish Government on transparency.
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman recently announced 125 “incidents” of coronavirus on non-Covid wards.
What that actually meant was that about 1800 people were affected – nearly 900 staff and the same number of patients.
The Government cannot be certain if any of the people had Covid-19 when they arrived at hospital, but that is not the point.
This saga will inevitably raise further questions of the PPE given to NHS staff.
We know unprotected care home workers were super spreaders and it seems hospital staff may also be in the same category.
There are legitimate fears that our hospitals were an epicentre of the virus.
Staff may have unwittingly passed Covid on to patients, who were then discharged into care homes.
And some of the problems may well still exist. As we reveal, nurses fear that moving between wards could be aiding the spread of Covid.
Some have been moved from Covid wards to A&E in the same shift. No wonder they are concerned.
The Government needs to get a grip and ensure that testing of NHS staff is rigorous and comprehensive.
Staff left in limbo
Through no fault of their own, nine million workers have been furloughed.
That’s almost a third of the workforce having their wages paid by the state.
But too many other workers have been left out of a scheme that’s been a lifeline for families across the country.
There are big gaps that have left as many as two million owners of small firms, 650,000 or so self-employed people who set up since last year and thousands of agency workers who have been left at the “mercy” of companies who walked away and left them empty-handed.
Because many companies failed to secure emergency furlough pay, sub-contractor employees were left in limbo when the economy ground to a halt.
Amid warnings that the job market is going to plummet after the pandemic, the Treasury has to address itself to the lost army of agency workers.
They have been treated appallingly.
