Question reference: S6W-00149
- Asked by: Mercedes Villalba, MSP for North East Scotland, Scottish Labour
- Date lodged: 21 May 2021
-
Current status: Answered by Kevin Stewart on 27 May 2021
Question
To ask the Scottish Government, further to the answer to the Urgent question by Kevin Stewart on 20 May 2021 regarding the Mental Welfare Commission for Scotland report, Authority to discharge, on what date it was initially advised that the discharge of patients who had not been tested for COVID-19 or had tested positive from hospital to care homes was unlawful.
Answer
The Mental Welfare Commission (MWC) report did not take account of the testing status of patients discharged from hospital. During the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic concerns were raised that people who were in hospital and lacked capacity may have been moved from hospital to care homes without full understanding of the legal requirements to ensure rights are upheld, and the move to care was lawful. This report details the findings of their investigation into these specific concerns.
The report concluded that some people had been moved without the appropriate legal authority, for example a Power of Attorney or Welfare Guardian. You can access the full report on the MWC website at https://www.mwcscot.org.uk/news/moves-hospitals-care-homes-during-pandemic-new-report-finds-wider-concerns-over-adherence-law .
The Scottish Government was first made aware that some people had been moved from hospital without the appropriate legal authority when we received the Mental Welfare Commissions draft report in April 2021.
Regarding the testing status of patients discharged to care homes, as stated in Parliament on 4 November 2020 by the then Cabinet Secretary for Health and Wellbeing, prior to the Sunday Post publishing their FOI, neither Scottish Ministers nor Government officials had information on the results of covid-19 tests prior to discharge, or where these patients were discharged. The Cabinet Secretary commissioned Public Health Scotland to carry out work to identify and report on discharges from NHS Hospitals to care homes during the first wave of the COVID-19 Pandemic. This report is available on the Public Health Scotland website at https://beta.isdscotland.org/find-publications-and-data/population-health/covid-19/discharges-from-nhsscotland-hospitals-to-care-homes/.