Scottish COVID-19 inquiry Impact hearing |Health and social care|19 April 2024 (afternoon session)
Dr.Donald Macaskill. Chief executive of Scottish Care with yet more shocking revelations on his experiences during the care home lockdowns.
Introduction
Returing for his second appearance at the inquiry is Dr.Donald Macaskill Chief Executive of Scottish Care.
‘‘Due to an urgency to discharge patients from hospital, there were also times when residents who had been admitted to hospital..
..were discharged back to their care home earlier than they would have been in normal circumstances and in conditions which would have ordinarily deemed them unfit for discharge…
..Scottish Care members raised concerns with us about people being discharged into care homes late in the evening, without their medical notes and without the necessary medication…
..This placed additional caring responsibilities on staff at a time when it was difficult to secure a visit to a care home by a GP or other medical professional.’
-Paragraph 79 of statement
4 weeks of lockdown harmful
A remarkable admission by Mr Macaskill is that it was known just 4 weeks into lockdown the harms from the restrictions were becoming ‘‘increasingly disproportionate’’ as the sector was already failing to meet even the most basic care needs of residents leading to serious health decline.
Officials within the Scottish Government were made aware.
'‘4-6 weeks in…the effect of not having family contact..the depression psychologically …the deterioration physiologically of residents was palpable to those who were that at the front-line.'‘
‘‘I certainly made the issue very clear to colleagues at government.’’
Surviving hell
Care homes are essentially hospices and if he were a resident he would choose freedom.
Average life expectancy of care home resident 14-18 months in normal times.
Admits fear took over.
‘‘We had a population who had been through HELL.’’
'‘If i was faced with the knowledge i had 3-6 months to live...i would be less concerned about getting COVID than i would be never seeing my family.’’
‘‘It was felt to many of us that care home residents had been forgotten.’’
No human rights
Mr.Macaskill acknowledges the law was broken in relation to the human rights of care home residents due to the nature of blanket guidance.
‘If i became ill i'd would hope my clinical needs would be met…
'‘That's NOT what we did with care home residents..it was a DENIAL of a human rights based approach….during a significant part of the pandemic.’’
‘‘We cannot have blanket rules which fails to appreciate the individuality and uniqueness of each person.’’
-Dr.Macaskill
‘‘In the early days March/April 2020…did you see any indication of a human rights based approach featuring in the way in which guidance was being drafted?’’
- Stuart Gayle KC
‘‘No.’’
-Dr.Macaskill
Impacts on residents with Dementia
Catastrophic impacts from restrictions.
‘‘The impact of withdrawing support from people who had dementia in the community was catastrophic as it not only disturbed their routine but hastened their deterioration.’’
No indemnity
In April 2020 insurance premiums for care homes increased 850%.
Care homes offered no indemnity unlike the NHS.
Even by Spring 2022 85% of insurers would still not insure a care home.
During ‘Omicron wave’ premiums still 500% more than normal.
‘‘Insurance became a real issue very very quickly.’’
‘‘A provider was informed by their insurance organisation that they should not admit somebody (to hospital) who was COVID positive otherwise they wouldn’t get insurance.’’
‘‘Very quickly we seen a HUGE spike in premiums.’’
Media absent
I could find no coverage of this crucial testimony by the media and when judged by the following screenshot on the day were clearly missing in action. This is testimony under oath from the CEO of Scottish Care who represent the largest group of independent sector social care providers across Scotland.
End
links:
Statement- https://www.covid19inquiry.scot/sites/default/files/ev-documents/sci-wt0189-000001.pdf
Full video-Youtube-Scottish COVID-19 inquiry-Impact hearing | Health and social care | 19 April 2024 (afternoon session)
How rare for someone in public office to state things clearly and not obfuscate every reply.
I just can't with these staff.. all laid bare about the harms caused by restrictions but because their a$$e$ weren't covered they all complied.. even after seeing firsthand what it was doing. Not sure which set of staff is worse.. clinical/frontline or residential.. all complied and they all knew. Too worried about their wallets, jobs and lives to be worried about state sanctioned human rights abuse. I appreciate this man for telling the truth but he still shouldn't be seeking exemption from prosecution for staff who just followed orders instead of providing long-standing models of care that didn't deny anyone rights and care or push them into the grave. Horrendous.