Covid in Scotland: Test 'shambles' at West Lothian care home
- Published
Residents and staff have tested positive for Covid at Redmill Care Home in West Lothian
Testing for Covid-19 at a care home hit with an outbreak of the virus is a "shambles", an MSP has claimed.
Labour's Neil Findlay said the first case was detected at Redmill Care Home in West Lothian on 25 September, but it took six days for a whole home testing regime to be organised.
He said 28 staff and 20 residents were awaiting results from tests, some of which were carried out nine days ago.
The health secretary promised to investigate any issues with testing.
The Redmill Care Home in East Whitburn is one of two in the NHS Lothian area currently dealing with Covid clusters.
At Redmill, which is run by HC-One, 55 residents and staff have tested positive, while at Milford House in Edinburgh there have been 31 positive test results.
The health board has said a "small number" of people have died but will not give precise figures because of patient confidentiality.
Worried relatives
Lothians MSP Mr Findlay told Holyrood he had been contacted by both staff and relatives of families at Redmill.
He said: "Today 28 staff are still waiting on results, six staff are waiting on a test.
"Some tests couldn't be given because labels didn't come with kits. Twenty residents are awaiting results, some people have not had results despite being tested on September 28, nine days ago.
"One staff member received three sets of results, one received someone else's results and 20 results were returned negative, but with no information with them as to whom they belonged to."
Mr Findlay continued: "I really hope the same has not happened at Milford House because staff and residents deserve so much better than what appears to be a shambles with the testing regime."
Jeane Freeman said she would investigate the concerns raised by Mr Findlay
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman gave a breakdown of the cases, saying 37 staff and 18 residents at Redmill Care Home had tested positive while at Milford House 18 staff and 13 residents had received positive test results.
She said Mr Findlay had raised "serious issues", but that this did not tie up with the information she had received about the homes, and she promised to investigate further.
A spokeswoman from HC One said: "We have experienced several challenges with the testing programme at Redmill Care Home, including delays and erroneous results being returned, and detailed this to Mr Findlay earlier today.
"We are very grateful for Mr Findlay's support and the immediate action he has taken to help us resolve these challenges.
"Our priority is to work with all interested parties to make sure that testing is completed in a timely and accurate fashion and that we can collectively tackle this outbreak for the benefit of residents and colleagues."
Nearly half of those who have died with coronavirus in Scotland have died in care homes, according to official figures.
- Published6 October 2020
