Scottish COVID-19 inquiry Impact hearing | Health and social care|7 May 2024 (morning session)
Today's session features Mr.Duncan McDonald a house manager from Erskine care homes who was unsure if any residents actually died of COVID.
Introduction
Erskine care homes are located in Bishopton, Glasgow and Gilmerton in Edinburgh. Mr.McDonald was the house manager for Haig House care home within the Bishopton facility. Residents predominantly have dementia. Haig is one of six houses that make up the complex with 30 residents in each home. Erskine prides itself on ‘‘caring for veterans since 1916’’. The Gilmerton facility has capacity for 40 residents.
Below is a tour of the impressive Erskine complex in Bishopton which opened in 2000.
Other houses.
Highest COVID death toll in Scotland
According to the COPFS dashboard and National Records of Scotland data Erskine care home, Bishopton suffered the highest COVID-19 fatality rate of all care homes in Scotland.
NB: I have no idea why the slight discrepancies in the numbers used by NRS and COPFS (34 v 32).
Media absence
This was the Scottish media turnout on the day to report on the testimony of Mr.McDonald. A care home manager representing Erskine Care Homes who accumulated the MOST ‘COVID’ deaths of all care homes in Scotland. Quite a shocking display by journalists. Why is this of no interest ? The STV report (in links below) on the actual testimony is even more embarassing when compared to the content provided here.
Lockdown harms
In this section of his testimony Mr.McDonald speaks of the devastating harm to residents occuring due to the strict nature of the lockdown policies.
'i had residents who forgot who their families were..lost communication skills'
'we had residents who gave up eating’
No Family
No dentists for 2 years
No podiatry
No dieticians
No GPs
Advanced nursing
With regards to advanced nurse practitioners it was noted they worked alongside GPs to deliver end of life care plans. Interestingly they were never absent from their shifts during the pandemic unlike other staff members.
‘‘It was a massive bonus, we had two advanced nurse practitioners that worked all through the pandemic.’’
‘‘If residents became unwell they were very skilled in treating those residents and giving us management plans for them.’’
‘‘Those were the ones that would order tests..they were the ones who decided who was isolating..they could prescribe for us…they could prescribe just in case meds for end of life medication for us…they could have syringe drivers if people became really unwell..they did all of that..they were on site all the way through. They had contact with the GPs.’’
‘‘It was a massive bonus.’’
NO COVID deaths in first wave
In this remarkable section, Mr.McDonald explains his home (Haig) had NO DEATHS due to COVID-19 throughout the entire ‘first wave’ of the pandemic and in total only 5 deaths over 3 years.
When he was asked: ‘‘were these five all COVID deaths?’’
‘‘They were put down as COVID deaths…you can never tell.’’
‘‘We have a population of residents who are elderly with comorbidities..some had been actively dying before the pandemic even started
….it would be difficult to say if COVID was the reason.’’
However, in Mr.Mcdonald’s witness statement he says:
‘‘I think we had less than 5.’’
Closing remarks
In Mr.McDonald’s closing inquiry remarks he mentions:
‘‘i saw other managers who had seen half their residents pass away.’’
Please share.
End
Links:
See by individual care home- https://www.nrscotland.gov.uk/statistics-and-data/statistics/statistics-by-theme/vital-events/general-publications/deaths-involving-coronavirus-covid-19-in-scotland
https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/marc.ellison8696/viz/CHD_16154580881600/TrackingcarehomedeathsinScotland
https://news.stv.tv/scotland/care-staff-felt-second-best-during-pandemic-as-ppe-redirected-to-nhs
Full video-Scottish COVID-19 inquiry-Youtube-Impact hearing | Health and social care | 7 May 2024 (morning session)
https://www.erskine.org.uk/get-support/our-care-homes/erskine-home-in-bishopton/
Witness statement- https://www.covid19inquiry.scot/sites/default/files/ev-documents/sci-wt0421-000001.pdf
I'll give you two concrete firsthand examples of data fraud that inflated the overall mortality numbers. These relate to nursing homes in the US in early 2020- during the manufactured "first wave."
Dellridge Health and Rehabilitation Center in Paramus, New Jersey was listed as the worst affected care home in the US with 753 "covid deaths." The reality, according to their marketing director, who I spoke with over the phone in June of 2020 is they have a 90 patient in-bed capacity and had only 20 "Covid deaths" total by June 2020.
Southern Pointe Living Center in Colbert, Oklahoma was listed as having 339 residents die of COVID-19 despite only having a 95 bed capacity, and officially reporting not one single case of Covid-19, let alone a death. I spoke on the phone with the manager of the home, Heather Martin, on the same day as I did with the marketing director of Dellridge.
In both instances I asked these individuals if they were aware of the discrepancies- they both said they were. I then asked them if they knew the origins of these discrepancies and they both said they did not.
Both individuals volunteered that their nursing homes were mandated to report their "Covid numbers" every morning through their system and that they did so- Heather Martin said she did it personally.
So how is it Heather Martin is filing that report each morning as '0' and somewhere along the line by the time it gets to the CDC it was this inflated number? Where in the chain is that happening and how is that happening?
They took every chance they could to amp up the Johns Hopkins Covid "scoreboard of death."
Great work as per 👏