Chamber and committees

Professor Leitch is the National Clinical Director for the Scottish Government. Advice provided publicly by Professor Leitch has been in this capacity.

Guidance and advice has evolved over the course of recent months to reflect both changing circumstances within Scotland, and ongoing scientific developments, in relation to Covid-19.

Scotland entered its current lockdown phase on 23 March 2020.

At no point has Scotland run out PPE.

The most up to date information from the Scottish Government on a range of subjects associated with Covid-19, including PPE and testing, can be found at www.gov.scot/Coronavirus-covid-19/ .

The Independent Review of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, co-Chaired by Dr Andrew Fraser and Dr Brian Montgomery, was entirely independent of the Scottish Government and both the conduct of the Review and its processes were a matter for the co-Chairs.

The co-Chairs were asked when appointed to ensure that the Review was conducted in a manner consistent with the recommendations set out in Professor Britton’s report. The co-Chairs have confirmed that, of the 46 recommendations made in Professor Britton’s Report, 33 were deemed applicable to the Review and have been met. The member may wish to contact the co-Chairs directly for a more detailed analysis of how these recommendations were implemented as part of the Review .

The Independent Review of the Queen Elizabeth University Hospital, co-Chaired by Dr Andrew Fraser and Dr Brian Montgomery, was entirely independent of the Scottish Government and both the conduct of the Review and its processes were a matter for the co-Chairs.

The co-Chairs were asked when appointed to ensure that the Review was conducted in a manner consistent with the recommendations set out in Professor Britton’s report and I understand the co-Chairs engaged with Professor Britton directly at an early stage.

Throughout the pandemic we have continued to followed the same risk assessments procedures that were in place prior to the outbreak. All policy decisions made by Ministers and Government officials were based on the best clinical advice available at that time. As we learned more about the impact of the virus, we ensured all guidance and decisions followed that changing landscape.

Responsibility for carrying out individual risk assessments prior to discharge falls to individual Health Bards, local authorities and Integration Authorities.

Our current guidance is clear. At all times a thorough risk assessment should be undertaken prior to discharge to ensure that the care home is able to provide the care required e.g. if the individual requires to be isolated, that there is a suitable physical space and staff available for the delivery of care and support to an isolated resident.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29292 on 2 July 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29295 on 2 July 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

I refer the member to the answer to question S5W-29295 on 2 July 2020. All answers to written Parliamentary Questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.parliament.scot/parliamentarybusiness/28877.aspx.

Ministers will always endeavour to answer Parliamentary Questions as quickly as possible.

Due to the Covid pandemic, Ministers are receiving an unprecedented volume of parliamentary questions and correspondence, and are working as quickly as possible to answer all questions in a helpful manner. In this instance, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Sport wrote to the member on 28 April 2020 to provide detailed information on the subject and a response to question S5W-28175 on 17 June 2020.

Our testing strategy is based on expert clinical and scientific advice, and it is kept under constant review. We are not currently planning to offer testing to community social care workers who are asymptomatic. At the current time, anyone in Scotland age 5 or older can access testing through the link on the NHS Inform website https://www.nhsinform.scot/illnesses-and-conditions
/infections-and-poisoning/coronavirus-covid-19 if they are symptomatic – there is sufficient capacity that there is no prioritisation in place just now.

Weekly testing of staff – including those who are asymptomatic - working in elderly care homes has been introduced because of the high level of risk of transmission in settings where large numbers of vulnerable people are living together with multiple staff members in an enclosed environment.

Recognising the specific circumstances of wider social, community and residential care, Health Protection Scotland has issued a series of guidance documents to support those working in these settings, to give advice to their staff and users of their services about Covid-19 (here: https://www.hps.scot.nhs.uk/guidance/
‎

The guidance documents give advice on measures (including use of PPE) to prevent the spread of Covid-19 and protect people at risk of severe illness. They also include a Covid-19 Incident or outbreak control tool for community care settings which enables early detection, investigation and management of potential outbreaks. The aim of the guidance is to create a culture and system that minimises susceptibility to COVID-19 and cross-transmission.

The testing of healthcare workers continues to be our priority, and all symptomatic NHS workers or symptomatic household members are eligible for testing.

On 23 June I announced that we are now routinely testing health care workers where the evidence tells us that it is appropriate to do so. All health care workers connected to a nosocomial outbreak will be tested regardless of whether or not they have symptoms. We will also test, on a weekly basis, staff working in specialist cancer units, in long-term care of the elderly, and in long-stay mental health wards. Boards are being asked to start this additional testing by 8 July.

The nosocomial expert group did not consider wholesale routine testing of asymptomatic health care workers to be an effective and proportionate method of tackling nosocomial risk.

At present we do not hold information on the specific number of patients tested before discharge. However, officials are working with Public Health Scotland to produce this data.