Over 100 patients were discharged to Perth and Kinross care homes without a COVID-19 test in first seven weeks of pandemic

The figures were obtained by Councillor Alasdair Bailey after he had requested them from the chief officer of Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) Gordon Paterson at a meeting last week.

Over 100 patients were discharged into Perth and Kinross care homes without being tested for COVID-19 in the first seven weeks of the crisis, the Perthshire Advertiser can reveal.

Between the first confirmed case of COVID-19 in Scotland, which was in Tayside on March 1, and April 19, 109 patients were discharged to care homes in the region.

The figures were obtained by Councillor Alasdair Bailey after he had requested them from the chief officer of Perth and Kinross Health and Social Care Partnership (HSCP) Gordon Paterson at a meeting last week.

Cllr Bailey told the PA he was “concerned” at the news. He added: “I accept that [the patients] were not showing signs of the virus at the time.

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but we have known from a very early stage that this bug can have a long incubation period and potentially be completely asymptomatic in some cases.

“Between March 1 and April 19, 109 people were discharged from hospitals to care homes without their COVID-negative status having first been confirmed.

“ To put that into context, by March 8 there were 271 confirmed cases in the UK and Tayside had reported its first case a week prior.

“By this time, the virus was very much at our doorstep. Yet it took until April 21 to include mandatory testing as part of the discharge process to care homes.

“My sincere hope is that not one of these 109 later turned out to have been carrying the virus and I’m glad that a strict testing regime is now in place.

“Clearly the priority in early March was to ‘clear the decks’ in our hospitals as a surge of critical cases was expected.

“However, those never materialised so we must now ask whether rushing to discharge people from hospital in the early days of this outbreak without the knowledge that they were clear of the bug was the correct thing to do.”

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In his response to Cllr Bailey, Mr Paterson said: “As always, patients discharged from hospital were clinically assessed as being fit for discharge. 

“This meant that anyone showing symptoms of COVID-19 would not be discharged. They would be tested and if positive transferred from PRI (which has been kept ‘COVID-free’) to appropriate wards in Ninewells.

“Throughout this period, as you would expect, Perth and Kinross HSCP complied with the relevant guidance from Health Protection Scotland and the Scottish Government.  Initially, in March the advice was that people transferring to care homes should be isolated, PPE should be used and that visits to care homes should be limited. 

“From the outset, the HSCP and council have sourced and provided PPE to care homes when they were unable to obtain supplies.

“Following the cabinet secretary’s statement on April 21, guidance was issued advising that COVID-19 patients discharged from hospital to a care home should have given two negative tests before discharge.

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“Testing of all patients being admitted to care homes was introduced, with residents isolating for 14 days on admission. In addition, from the end of April, all patients over the age of 70 years have been receiving tests every four days, in line with further guidance.”

This week First Minister Nicola Sturgeon was questioned on the issue of patients being discharged from Scottish hospitals to care homes during the pandemic before compulsory testing was announced on April 21.

Ms Sturgeon said: “If we apply what we know now to the situation then, of course we might now take different decisions.”

She added: “There were risk assessments of people leaving hospitals and of course there was guidance to care homes about isolation. On that issue as on everything, we continue to adapt our response as our knowledge continues to develop.”

Ms Sturgeon said there will be a public inquiry into the public health crisis which will “undoubtedly include what has happened in care homes.”