Scottish care homes chief tells MPs that patients who’d tested positive for Covid were taken in

The chief executive of care homes umbrella body Scottish Care has confirmed hospital patients who had tested positive for Covid were moved to care homes.

Dr Donald Macaskill, chief executive of Scottish Care, told MPs on the Scottish Affairs Select Committee that, at the time, official guidance indicated a positive test was not a barrier to discharging patients to care homes.

He said: “That was the how and the why of how individuals who were positive were transferred into care homes.

“Now clearly, as we got to know more about the disease, the clinical understanding of the nature of pandemic, resulted in a decision made later that individuals who were positive should not be transferred but in the early days that was not the clinical view.

“Some care homes refused to accept positive individuals and others, particularly because the individuals were returning to their own home, clearly did.”

Scottish Conservative health spokesman Donald Cameron said: “This is yet further confirmation that Covid-positive patients were admitted to care homes.”

The Post told last month how dozens of potentially infectious patients were transferred to care homes after a positive test as part of a government push to empty hospitals.

However, Scotland’s largest health boards – NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde and NHS Lothian – did not respond to The Post’s Freedom of Information request on cost grounds.

The Scottish Government has ordered a Public Health Scotland probe after The Post’s investigation, due to report back by the end of the month.

First Minister Nicola Sturgeon told MSPs she hoped the investigation will “ensure we learn the appropriate and proper lessons”.