Scotland Covid: The wait is too long for closure over Covid deaths - comment

Getting closure following the sudden or unexplained death of a loved one is a fundamental step in being able to repair, to heal and to make sense in some way of your losses.

For the grieving, closure is not just a word, but a chance to reclaim part of themselves.

It is a tragedy in itself that for loved ones of more than 3,800 people who died in Scottish care homes with Covid-19 during the pandemic, that closure appears as far out of reach as ever.

As we move into the third winter under the looming threat of this insidious disease, fundamental questions surrounding the high rates of fatal infection in care homes during the early days of the pandemic remain unanswered. The 'what ifs, the ‘what buts’ still heavily sit with families and friends of those who died.

Crucially, the uncertainty is too being carried by care home staff who are, more than two-and-a-half years on, unclear whether they face action over their professional conduct.

For them, a real 'emotional and psychological’ burden has set in.

Operation Koper was set up by the Lord Advocate in May 2020 to determine whether any individual death in care homes related to Covid-19 should be referred for prosecution or a fatal accident inquiry (FAI).

It was set up given ‘public anxiety’ surrounding care home deaths.

A care home resident and her carer during Covid. An investigation into Covid-related deaths in Scottish care homes has yet to make a single decision and an inquiry into the way the Scottish Government handled the pandemic has yet to hold a single session. Meanwhile, staff and families continued to live with unanswered questions over individual tragedies. PIC: Getty.

We now know more than half of elderly hospital patients discharged to nearly 200 Scottish care homes in the early days of the pandemic were not tested for Covid, with First Minister Nicola Sturgeon accepting the practice had cost lives.

Today, we report that not a single decision to date has been taken by the Crown Office following the investigations into care home deaths.

The weight of unanswered questions remains for thousands as another challenging winter approaches.

If the reported public anxiety over the risk to care home residents from Covid has been alleviated in any way, it is hard to yet lay any credit at the door of Operation Koper.

No timeline has been put in place for the investigations, with concerns they will “disappear into the quagmire” of the Crown Office, whose staff are under huge pressure to investigate the individual care home deaths.

Fears are also growing around potential delays to the public inquiry set up in December last year to examine the Scottish Government’s handling of the Covid crisis, which has yet to hold a single session.

For families and for care home staff, who feel Operation Koper investigations are wholly disproportionate and which take them away from frontline duties, the unanswered questions and lack of closure remain a heavy open wound, and one which state efforts have yet to help heal.