Scottish COVID-19 inquiry|13 Jun 2025
More harrowing evidence from Pat Graham and Jennifer Miller of PAMIS.
Introduction
Appearing for the third time (previous PAMIS session here 1 2 3 4 5) at the inquiry is Jennifer Miller, Chief Executive Officer of PAMIS (Promoting a More Inclusive Society) and Pat Graham, Chair. PAMIS is the the only Charity in the United Kingdom which solely represents people with PMLD (Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities) and their families/carers).
An extremely powerful session and once again the disastrous and lethal effects of the lockdown restrictions not ‘COVID’ is confirmed.
‘‘One of the mothers who we support provided evidence to the Inquiry already as part of the Health and Social Care portfolio regarding her son. He did not get the support that he needed for his postural care or the reassessment and reprovision of his wheelchair. This support was cut off with no replacement. His death was an arbitrary death. He did not die from COVID, but he certainly died because of COVID.’’
-Paragraph 14 of statement
‘‘Families constantly had to balance the threat of COVID and the massive detrimental impact that the restrictions were having on their loved one who was deteriorating either in front of them or in a residential setting.’’
-Paragraph 33
‘‘The discrimination and indeed risks that people with PMLD face when being admitted into hospital settings continued during the pandemic.’’
-Paragraph 82
Testimony highlights
Lack of family visits adversely impacted all areas of health.
Permament harms due to restrictions.
Irretriveable loss of skills.
Healthcare withdrawal directly led to deaths.
‘‘Everything closed down overnight…we were allowed no access whatsoever without any explanation.’’
‘‘We were’nt allowed to visit my daughter and she wasn’t allowed to visit us and that carried on for quite a number of months…this was quite typical.’’
‘‘Because of the lack of input from allied health professionals and other medical professionals their physical health wasn’t taken care of either.’’
‘‘For some of them they ended up not surviving at all.’’
Health services ‘disappeared’
Protect the vulnerable. Clap for and save the NHS.
‘‘It was almost impossible to get somebody that was a GP or an allied health professional…and i think that’s what exacerbated the deterioration in the general health of people with PMLD.’’
‘‘It was impossible to get in touch with anybody to provide any advice at all.’’
‘‘Their was signifcant lost people with PMLD. Everything in their life stopped. Those losses were extreme.’’
Equality act discarded/Reasonable adjustments not made
Huge long term adverse health impact of restrictions
Negative effects of isolation outweighed risk of ‘COVID.’
‘‘Family carers should not have had to lose contact with their family member.’’
‘‘There should have been consideration on the impact of the COVID restrictions and the long term effect for them and the distress that would cause them.’’
‘‘Sometimes that would have overridden (harms of isolation) the risk of COVID…because people can die from isolation and loneliness.’’
Council cuts to services ‘we’re all in this together’
Local authorities used ‘the pandemic’ to permanently cut services to the most severely disabled people in Scotland without equality impact assessments.
‘‘We have families five years on who still have no day services and have no respite..they’ve broken actually..they’re not even at breaking point.’’
‘‘Many of the day services have never gone back to what they were pre pandemic.’’
Concluding remarks PAMIS
Prevention of torture/deprivation of liberty/human rights.
‘‘The restrictive measures taken were not always necessary, not always proportionate, not respectful of their human dignity, went on for significantly longer than they should have.’’
Statement highlights
‘‘A number of people with PMLD were left isolated from their families, with their usual support from Allied Health Professionals also being withdrawn and redeployed into other roles. This happened right at the beginning of the pandemic. There was no consultation with the families about the withdrawal. It came as a shock to PAMIS, to the families we support, and we think also to the Allied Health Professionals themselves. It was like people just disappeared.’’
-Paragraph 10
‘‘We can understand why there was panic to get people back into the frontline, but a blanket mandatory instruction for people to do this did not really make sense..There should have been a thorough assessment of what will happen to certain groups following the withdrawal of these services.’’
-Paragraph 14
‘‘The caring role of these families intensified so severely that they were exhausted.’’
-Paragraph 32
‘‘Throughout the COVID pandemic, we saw resources being prioritised for other groups in society over people with PMLD. A key example of this was the provision of day and respite services.’’
-Paragraph 39
‘‘There was subsequently a significant reduction in service provision that families supported by PAMIS relied on pre-COVID. For many families, these services have never returned.’’
-Paragraph 56
‘‘It felt that before COVID, where local authorities wanted to cut down on day services, COVID gave them an opportunity to do this and make cuts that enabled them to do this. Many have never returned to what they were or even returned at all. This is over 5 years later.’
-Paragraph 64
‘‘Families supported by PAMIS felt that equal value would not be placed on the life of their loved one with PMLD during the pandemic because of their disability, particularly should they have become unwell and required treatment during this period.’’
-Paragraph 80
‘‘We raised the human rights and equality issues that the lack of reasonable adjustments in this context were posing to people with PMLD, but we were ignored or dismissed.’’
-Pargraph 84
Thoughts
The most disabled people in Scotland were treated without dignity and had all their healthcare support removed during lockdown. Many then died directly from the restrictions imposed with the harms from isolation outweighing the the risk of ‘COVID.’ Permanent long term adverse health impacts of the restrictions now evident. The Equality Act was discarded and councils used the ‘pandemic’ to permanently remove care packages without impact assessments. All of this stated under oath by the chair and CEO of PAMIS. Just wow!
Despite these admissions this world leading information exposing what really took place during lockdown cannot gain the traction required to reach millions of people in the ‘freedom’ arena and it is the one issue where both the mainstream and ‘alt’ media/popular outspoken personalities/groups operate in lockstep making sure this and other crucial evidence from the inquiry is not prioritised or discussed but rather ignored and buried forever.
Thanks for your attention. Like, share and comment if you care.
End
This reporting should be front and centre in msm and numerous alt media outlets as it is profoundly disturbing the way people with disabilities were treated- shutting people away from their relatives, depriving them of morale boosting contact. It is sad to read these reports because of the indifference to them shown by msm. It would rather report on the 'baubles' of the State doled out to footballers, darts players, a plethora of low key 'celebrities', or people who failed at their government responsibilities, ironical job title...Border Force. And, there's the 'Royals' lined up to watch some planes flyoverhead....have we heard a dicky bird from any of them about the collateral damage of 'covid', pertaining to these testimonies from the Scottish Inquiry.
My son was living with us throughout, and his support workers were coming to this house - there were few places to take him to that were open. It was a bit tense, but luckily we employ them using a direct payment, and they are like old friends , so we got by. I can imagine how awful it must have been for the families of children/ adults with profound disabilities in care. Dire.