Ruth Davidson raged against the Scottish Government over their failure to protect care home residents and staff during the coronavirus pandemic. The former Scottish Tory leader hit out at Nicola Sturgeon for the decision to allow hospital patients back into care homes without testing for COVID-19. Speaking to Good Morning Britain, Ms Davidson said: “I think whatever inquiries we have out of the back of this, there’s going to be so many lessons that we have to learn.
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“For example, you talk about the situation in England where some people were put into care homes without having tested negative first as they were discharged from hospital.
“We had the same thing in Scotland but we’ve had to a greater degree.
“We had the Scottish Government actively using beds in advance in care homes, spending money, telling care home operators ‘we want to emptier hospitals and we’re going to do it without testing or having a negative test back of the people we’re putting in there’.”
According to the latest reports from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Scotland has the highest care home death rate of all UK nations at 45 percent. Wales followed at 25 percent, England at 21 percent – the lowest in all of Europe.
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Ms Davidson continued: “In terms of the agency of Government, actually, physically making the decision of putting people who may or may not be infected into an enclosed environment of incredibly vulnerable people.
“Our care home death in Scotland is double that of England.
“I think there need to be inquiries in every part of the UK because health is devolved.
“Wales is doing it differently, Scotland is doing it differently, England is doing it differently but we also need to have a broader inquiry across the whole of the United Kingdom of what do we need to learn if this, God help us, comes back again or something like it.
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“Those efforts both in testing and infection control are driven by the directions of public health directors.”
Scotland’s First Minister added: “The situation in care homes not just in Scotland but UK wide and globally has been one of the most distressing factors of a very distressing situation.”
The SNP leader insisted she is “anxious” to make the right decision for Scotland and its residents to clamp down on the coronavirus outbreak.
Speaking at her daily press briefing on Tuesday, Ms Sturgeon said: “I think everybody should take it as read that on a daily basis I question the decisions we are taking and give a lot of thought to the decision we take.
“I am anxious that we get those decisions as right as possible.
“I don’t have the benefit of 2020 hindsight and I reflect that in the last few days alone I have been asked to comment on experts’ opinions at opposite ends of the spectrum.
