Meeting of the Parliament (Hybrid) 11 November 2020
I welcome this debate and what the cabinet secretary said about how she wants to work with others to ensure that we can solve the issue.
I think that we can all agree that the continued health and safety of all our front-line health and social care workers is a key priority right now. Since the beginning of the pandemic, I have expressed my on-going gratitude to all those who work in that sector. I want to take a moment at the beginning of my speech to once again thank our brave and committed doctors, nurses, carers, porters and everyone else who works in health and social care. My heart also goes out to those who have lost a loved one during these difficult times.
As the pandemic has continued and we have tried to limit the spread of Covid-19 throughout our communities, the Scottish Government has made testing a priority for key workers and the public. It continues to prioritise the expansion of the NHS’s testing capacity every day. It is important to note that Scotland’s maximum weekday lab capacity is now more than 10,000 tests and that, at the very beginning of the crisis, we had the capacity for only 350 tests. At that time, the 350 tests per day were split between Edinburgh and Glasgow. There has been an increase to 10,000 tests, with labs in all 14 health board areas alongside key partner nodes in academia and the private sector. All are operational and testing every single day.
Although the increase from 350 to 10,000 tests is exceptional, the Scottish Government is committed to building the lab processing capacity to at least 65,000 tests per day come winter. I know that all the new regional hubs that will go live between this month and next month will help us to move closer to that target and allow us to be less reliant on the United Kingdom Lighthouse lab network. [Interruption.] I do not have much time, so I cannot take an intervention. I am sorry.
Alongside massively increasing our national testing capacity to cope with the demand, weekly testing is already offered to all care home staff, regardless of whether they have symptoms or whether there is an outbreak in their home. Enhanced outbreak investigations are mandatory when cases are detected, and a test is offered to all care home staff. It is important that the Scottish Government continues to protect society’s most vulnerable by focusing on those who are most likely to bring the virus into homes in the first place.
The data suggests that the uptake of testing is already quite good. Statistics that were published on 4 November show that 41,767 care home staff were tested in the latest reporting period. That is an increase of 2,000 from the previous week. The percentage of available staff tested was at least 72 per cent. I know that many members across the chamber will ask why the remaining 28 per cent were not tested. It is important remember that testing can take place only with the explicit consent of the staff and that all the staff would need to be present for that to happen in the first place, as opposed to being on annual leave or otherwise absent. I am not one for filling a speech full of statistics, but it is important to remember those key points when we are dealing with such a serious issue.
I know that people are sometimes reluctant to be tested for fear of testing positive and then having to isolate and miss work. In light of that, the Scottish Government has advocated a supportive approach when staff decline a test. It encourages employers to get to the root of the reason for refusal.
It is crucial to highlight that the Scottish Government has implemented routine testing for healthcare workers when the evidence has suggested that it is appropriate to do so. The current policy is that all asymptomatic healthcare staff are tested for Covid-19 if there is an outbreak in a previously Covid-free ward. Since 8 July, that approach has been extended to include staff who work in the highest-risk areas of specialist wards, wards for the long-term care of the elderly and long-term psychiatric wards.
In order to combat the pandemic as safely and efficiently as possible, the Scottish Government has followed the advice of clinicians, scientists and professionals from the beginning. As we continue—we agree with one another today—we need to remember those specialists when we are dealing with the issue.
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