Scotland's national clinical director Jason Leitch has been accused of claiming a dead colleague’s Covid may have come from his family.
Louise Slorance revealed her fury with Leitch over the source of her late spouse Andrew’s coronavirus infection.
The widow also released messages Leitch and her husband exchanged when he lay ill in hospital.
The 49-year-old cancer sufferer had shielded himself in his Edinburgh house by sleeping and working in a 10ft x 10ft room for seven months without physical or close contact with anyone.
He was admitted to the QEUH in October 2020 for stem cell treatment after which Louise said he got Covid.
She said he tested negative three times, one of which was “pre-admission” and twice after entering the hospital.
Louise said she spoke to Leitch as Andrew’s health deteriorated.
She said: “I asked him about genome sequencing and the source and he said, ‘Well, Andrew’s a different case and we know that elite sports people have been known to have longer incubation periods’.
"Andrew is no elite sportsperson, as I think we all know. “
Louise, who said she is “100 per cent” certain Andrew contracted Covid at the QEUH, added: “I came off the phone as he’d actually said, ‘So it could be your family’.
"I came off the phone absolutely furious.
"Then since Andrew’s death, [I found] the text messages where he’s also made implications at Andrew.”
The Twitter direct messages show the two men discussing the infection and the previous negative Covid results.
Leitch wrote: “You could have been incubating. Stragglers incubate longer than 14 days. What are the staff saying?”
He asked Andrew what he could do, before adding: “Negative doesn’t mean you weren’t incubating. I know you know that.”
Asked how she felt when she read the messages, Louise said: “Angry. Andrew trusted them all. And he trusted that their knowledge was much greater on all of these things.
"So to know they put the suggestion into his head that his family could have given him what he knew may kill him, just uurgh.”
On how she feels towards Leitch, she said: “I don’t think that’s one for the Record.”
Professor Leitch said: “Andrew Slorance was an outstanding public servant. His loss is felt profoundly in the Scottish Government, but this will only be a fraction of the loss that is being experienced by his family.
“When I was messaging with Andrew, I was trying to provide support to a long- standing colleague – in no way was I seeking to apportion responsibility for Andrew’s Covid infection to any particular person or group.
"I apologise sincerely for any distress that has caused.”
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