Covid Scotland: Families and care homes ‘stuck in limbo’ as Crown Office stalls Covid-19 death decisions

Families of relatives who died from Covid-19 in Scottish care homes remain “stuck in limbo” waiting for justice as decisions on whether to prosecute care homes for their deaths remain undecided.

The care sector has also hit out at the lack of movement from the Crown Office, labelling the investigations into care home deaths from Covid-19 as a cloud hanging over the field, causing a “real emotional and psychological burden”.

Operation Koper was established by the Crown Office after Scotland’s most senior legal officer, the Lord Advocate, required the notification of any confirmed or presumed Covid-19 death in employment or in care homes.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

At least 3,877 deaths in care homes are being investigated by the Covid Deaths Investigation Team, alongside more than 1,000 in hospitals, the most up-to-date data states.

The total is likely to be higher due to probable underestimates of the number of deaths in homes where official data states there are fewer than five deaths being investigated.

And despite almost two-and-a-half years after the investigations into these deaths was ordered by the Lord Advocate, not one decision on whether to prosecute or subject the death to a fatal accident inquiry (FAI) has been made.

The Crown Office state this is due to the fact the investigation is ongoing and publicly puts no timetable on when it may end.

The result is families, care homes and their staff in limbo, waiting for potential news of a criminal prosecution and fact-based explanations for their loved-ones death.

Care homes and families are in limbo due to the wait for answers from the Crown Office.Care homes and families are in limbo due to the wait for answers from the Crown Office.
Care homes and families are in limbo due to the wait for answers from the Crown Office.

Donald Macaskill, chief executive of the care sector representative body, Scottish Care, said the wait for answers was “wholly unacceptable”. He called for a reversion to “pre-pandemic proportionate practice”.

“Operation Koper is a cloud that is hanging over the care home sector,” he said.

"Care workers and professional nurses in this sector are being treated unlike in any other sector, causing real emotional and psychological burden.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“Even though Covid-19 is handled very differently now, with no face masks, no enhanced protections and no testing in the community, deaths in care homes are still subject to disproportionate and discriminatory treatment by the Crown Office.

"This investigation is causing considerable distress to direct care and nursing staff and the care home sector.”

Mr Macaskill added: “It also impacts the recruitment and retention of an already scarce workforce as we see women and men leaving their jobs in the sector or joining agencies because of this degree of impugned culpability.

“The considerable length of time that frontline staff have to wait to be told whether or not further action may be taken is wholly unacceptable. We have to revert to pre-pandemic proportionate practice to allow the sector to move forward and heal.”

The concerns have been voiced with fears growing around potential delays to the public inquiry set up in December 2021 to examine the Scottish Government's handling of the Covid crisis.

Chairwoman Lady Poole and four members of the inquiry counsel team have stepped down, prompting bereaved families to say they feel “betrayed”. The review is yet to hold a single session.

Aamer Anwar, the Scottish Covid-19 Bereaved Families for Justice group's solicitor, said of investigations into care home deaths: "We totally understand the huge pressure that [the] Crown Office is under to investigate robustly the thousands of deaths that took place in care homes around Scotland.

“However, there is a growing concern from our clients that investigations will disappear into the quagmire that represents Crown Office over the last seven years.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The oft-repeated mantra of cases being complex cannot and will not be accepted as an excuse to allow decision making to drag on for years.

“We are aware in other cases that some four years on FAIs have not even taken place, so the Covid bereaved families deserve answers and they hope to get them from the Lord Advocate in the coming days.

“The families we represent believe that many of their loved ones were failed often in horrific circumstances and the loss of life was not always inevitable.

“The families have campaigned for truth, accountability and justice and they deserve nothing less.”

Craig Hoy, the Scottish Conservative’s spokesperson for social care, said families were “stuck in limbo”.

He said: “Grieving families need urgent answers as to what went wrong in our care homes, but right now they are being let down.

“The spate of recent resignations at the Covid inquiry has already left families feeling that they are back to square one – now the lack of progress from the Crown Office will doubtless mean even more distress.

“The people who lost loved ones as a result of these tragic events should always be the ultimate focus in these investigations, but they are being overlooked at every turn.”

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

A spokesperson for the Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service said: “The Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) has established a dedicated team to investigate Covid or presumed-Covid deaths where they fall to be reported.

“The Covid Deaths Investigation Team (CDIT) will work with the relevant agencies to ensure that all necessary and appropriate enquiries are made as efficiently as possible.

“While our investigations are ongoing there is a limit to the amount of information that can be shared. We will continue to keep families of the deceased updated with significant developments. ”

All episodes of the brand new limited series podcast, How to be an independent country: Scotland’s Choices, are out now.

It is available wherever you get your podcasts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.