UK Covid Inquiry: Jeane Freeman says she will regret care home deaths for rest of her life

The former health secretary said she was ‘personally very concerned’ about the care sector

Former health secretary Jeane Freeman has told the UK Covid Inquiry that she will regret for the rest of her life those deaths that occurred in care homes during the pandemic because of Scottish Government decision-making.

Ms Freeman, who stood down as an MSP in 2021, admitted the government’s response was “not as adequate” as she would have wished it to be.

However, she added: “I believe it was all that could be done with the resources available to us at that point, and that improved as time passed.”

Jeane Freeman, former Scottish health secretary, departs the UK Covid inquiry at the Edinburgh International Conference Centre. Picture: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images

Ms Freeman, who was the health secretary from 2018 to 2021, oversaw key decisions such as discharging patients to care homes without testing them first for coronavirus in the early weeks of the pandemic.

According to evidence heard earlier in the inquiry, which is sitting in Edinburgh as it probes the Scottish Government response, 82 per cent of the 3,595 patients discharged between March 1 and April 21, 2020, were not tested for the virus.

A Public Health Scotland report in 2020 also found more than 100 people who had previously tested positive for the virus were admitted from hospital to a care home before returning a negative test.

The Scottish Government issued updated care home guidance on April 21 requiring two negative tests. Before this point, the inquiry heard there had been a lack of testing capacity.

Former health secretary Jeane Freeman and former first minister Nicola Sturgeon. Picture: Andy Buchanan/PA

Ms Freeman said: “You cannot magic out of thin air appropriate buildings, appropriate kit and skilled individuals. A lot of effort was put into increasing our capacity for testing because even if I hadn’t understood the vulnerabilities in our care homes and other closed settings, I understood the vulnerabilities of those caring for individuals in terms not only of PPE [personal protective equipment], but of knowing whether or not they were themselves infectious and posing a risk.”

She added: “I believe we moved as quickly as we could, actually could, to increase our testing capacity. It has never been put to me that there was testing capacity available somewhere else that we could have used and didn’t use.”

Earlier, the former health secretary said: “I would like to say that this point, I have said it before, but I want it read into the record here, that I was personally very concerned about our care sector, both our residential care sector and the care-at-home sector for adults and regret very much and will do for the rest of my life, any deaths that occurred there because of action that the Scottish Government didn’t take or did take, but could have done better.”

Ms Freeman said the issue of transmission in care homes was “complex”. She said while 348 care homes had outbreaks of Covid, “some care homes that received discharges did not have outbreaks”.

She said: “I am not saying that the discharge from hospital without a test had no impact. What I am saying is that it was one of the factors.”

Elsewhere, she said there were “no risk-free choices” when considering whether to introduce social distancing measures into care homes.

Ms Freeman told the inquiry she had been unable to recover messages she had exchanged with Ms Sturgeon, but insisted such correspondence was “short” and “operational”. She said she had not deleted any WhatsApps or texts.