Meeting of the Parliament 05 December 2023
I apologise for the delay in my attendance in the chamber.
I will open with the words of Natasha Hamilton, daughter of Anne Duke, who gave evidence last month to the Scottish Covid inquiry. Natasha told the inquiry that she did not have a chance to say a final goodbye to her mother because she had to “wait her turn” while her father and sister were in Anne’s room. Even though the family knew that Anne was hours away from passing, Natasha was not able to enter the care home until a certain point. Natasha told the inquiry:
“I had to take a PCR Covid test. I got to my mum’s room, I opened the door and my dad was frantic and I looked at my sister and my sister just nodded at me. I’d missed being with my mum by seconds because we had to stagger who was coming into the care home.”
As campaigners have said, the practices that were put in place during the pandemic were arguably far worse than the virus itself because they denied many elderly and vulnerable Scots the comfort of their loved ones in the final hours of their lives.
Throughout the pandemic and since, I have worked with and supported families who want to tell their own stories, and I take the opportunity to pay tribute to Anne’s husband, Campbell Duke, and her daughter, Natasha Hamilton, for the campaign that they have led to see Anne’s law put in place to ensure that people living in care homes have the legal right to visits from loved ones and that there will be shared decision making about care if any restrictions have to be put in place in future.
It has become common for ministers and officials to talk about taking a human rights-based approach. Members from across the chamber agree with that as we respond to questions and discuss future policy developments, but we must see what that means at the heart of policy. I want to look at some of the evidence that the Covid inquiry has heard about times when that was not the case. Care home residents were neglected and, in many cases, were left to starve because of the restrictions that were imposed during the Covid pandemic.
Today’s debate is not about the Scottish Government’s handling of the pandemic; it is about the lessons around human rights, which we should learn. This has not been mentioned, but six in 10 of the people who died with Covid-19 in Scotland were disabled people. I wish to return to the decisions that were taken during the pandemic. Three years on from the restrictions being put in place, many of the people who were in care homes during the pandemic are not alive today. We should always bring our discussions around human rights policy back to the stories and experiences that their families and friends wish to ensure are never forgotten.
One example is the case of my constituent, Mr Rodger Laing, who, against the wishes of his family, had his power of attorney overruled. He was transferred from Midlothian community hospital to a care home. Mr Laing developed coronavirus and died from it. His daughter Gail has said that she
“will never be able to forgive them”
for her dad, and that
“someone needs to be held accountable.”
As part of the Covid-19 response by Scottish National Party ministers, 1,090 additional care home places were purchased, and in many cases patients were moved without the shared decision making of their families.