LABOUR MSP Neil Findlay pleaded with Nicola Sturgeon to stop allowing patients to be discharged from hospitals to care homes.

In an emotional and personal exchange at First Minister’s question, the SNP leader was near tears when she asked the Labour backbencher not to suggest that the government didn’t care or wasn’t trying to “do the right thing.”

In his question Finlday said: “My mum like thousands of our loved ones is in a care home, we now have the worst death rates in Europe, and care homes are the epicentre of the crisis. 59% of deaths occuring in care homes as has been announced today. 

“Can I therefore ask why on earth we are continuing to discharge patients from hospital to care homes, without establishing whether or not they are positive for COVID-19. I am not one that ever pleads with the First Minister, but I will now. Please stop this practice now to save the lives of residents and the great people who look after my mum?”

Sturgeon responded: “Can I say to Neil Findlay every single one of us is deeply, deeply concerned and moved by what's happening in our care homes and that is particularly the case for people like him, who have relatives in care homes but I don't think there is a single one of us who does not think this a deeply and profoundly upsetting situation, so please do not ask these questions in a way that suggests that we are not all trying to do everything we possibly can to do the right thing.” 

She added: “Now, on the situation with care homes where a patient in a hospital has the virus, then they have to have two negative tests before they can be discharged. When a patient has not had the virus but is discharged to a care home they have to be tested, and they should be tested 48 hours before they are due for discharge, and where the judgement is that it is right for that person, not to remain in hospital but it is better for that person to be in a care home, they have to be isolated in that care home for 14 days if the test result has not been known. 

“So, at every single step of the way, the priority is to prevent infection getting into a care home, and the ways in which that is done is clinically driven and clinically led, and it is led by the best interests of the individual and by the best interest of trying to prevent infection in care homes. 

“And I hope Neil Findlay, even if he, as he's absolutely entitled to do, doesn't agree with the detail of that policy, he will take it on good faith that we are doing the things that are advised to as the best way of protecting individuals whether they're in hospital, in care homes, or in communities, every single step of the way.”

The exchange came as new data from the National Records of Scotland revealed that there were 523 deaths between April 27 to May 3, a decrease of 135 from the previous week.

Of those deaths 59% were in care homes, up from 52% in the previous week. Another 37% were in hospitals while 4% were at home or non-institutional settings.

Although the percentage has increased, the number of deaths in care homes is down from 339 to 310.