Five years on as she defends ‘deadly’ care home decision

Strict regulations were implemented with Scots told not to leave their homes more than once a day, even if they were staying outside to exercise.

Shops were told to close while schools were also shut and social distancing measures were put in place.

Ms Freeman, pictured right, a former Labour adviser, along with Nicola Sturgeon, faced criticism for the policy of sending untested hospital patients into care homes at the height of the pandemic.

The practice, which was blamed for many Covid deaths in care homes, was not ended in Scotland until April 21, 2020 – almost a week after the UK Government had scrapped the policy.

But appearing on BBC Scotland‘s Sunday Show, she said care homes were a “much safer place” for vulnerable Scots than “a hospital that is treating Covid patients”.

Ms Freeman admitted some of the decisions she made caused “harm”, such as reducing cancer screening services. But asked if she had any regrets, she said: “I regret that people died, I regret the harm that was caused.

“But I still believe that I made the best decisions that I could in the circumstances I was facing at each moment in time, and I was able to improve matters as we went along.” Probed further on whether she could understand people’s anger at what happened, she responded: “I absolutely can.”

She defended the care home policy, saying NHS Scotland did not have a testing capacity at the time to check every patient. She also said care homes had infection control systems in place.

But asked about the decision to close schools, she said while she “can’t say for sure it was the wrong decision,” it was “something worth reconsidering”. Schools closed on March 20, 2020 and pupils did not return until August with exams cancelled.

Youngsters were forced to learn from home as part of a ‘blended learning’ model, piling pressure on teachers and isolating pupils from their peers. The return to in-person learning did not take place until March 2021.

Studies suggest children struggled with the mental health due to the school closures while violence in the classroom has increased since Covid. Ms Freeman was branded “shameful” by the Scottish Conservatives for trying to defend the SNP’s handling of the pandemic.

The party’s health spokesman Dr Sandesh Gulhane said: “Jeane Freeman’s shameful attempt to defend the SNP’s catastrophic handling of the pandemic is an insult to every Scottish family who lost a loved one.

Scottish Labour spokesperson Jackie Baillie said: “We need our NHS to be in fighting shape for any future pandemic but the SNP’s failure to deliver a recovery plan after Covid has made it more vulnerable than ever.

“Under the dysfunctional SNP, operating theatres can remain underused while A&E patients wait in corridors and nearly one in six Scots are on an NHS waiting list.

“Scottish Labour will bring a patient-first approach to our NHS where the money follows the patient rather than propping up bureaucracy and all available operating capacity is used.

“Our NHS needs a new direction and Scottish Labour is ready to deliver it.”

Responding to Professor Mark Woolhouse’s interview on BBC Radio Scotland, where he said that concern about Covid-19 in the months leading up to the pandemic “didn’t get translated through the government advisory systems as they existed at the time into a strong call for action…when it was needed”, Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP said:

“Ministers were consistently warned that a pandemic was the single biggest threat to Scotland, but when it struck, the government was totally unprepared and distracted.

“Bereaved families will never have the full picture of what went wrong because Nicola Sturgeon and other senior figures deleted their pandemic messages.

“These were systematic failings, and the ongoing public inquiries must ensure that lessons are learned to prevent them from ever happening again.”