NICOLA Sturgeon has rejected claims that Scotland’s care home death rate is double that of England. 

Statistics published yesterday by the Office of National Statistics revealed that up to May 1, the cumulative number of care home residents who have died of Covid-19 in was  24.9% of all virus related deaths in England.   

In Scotland, according to the National Records of Scotland, the equivalent figure is 42.8%.

Both Scottish Tory leader, Jackson Carlaw, and Scottish Labour’s Richard Leonard pushed the SNP chief on the figure during First Minister’s Questions. 

But Sturgeon said the difference was down to Scotland's statistics being more accurate than England and Wales. 

She referred to a new study from the London School of Economics, published on Wednesday morning, that said the true death toll south of the border was likely more than double the number in official figures.

The academics said the Office for National Statistics significantly underestimated the impact of the pandemic on care home residents and accounted for only about four out of 10 of the excess deaths in care settings recorded in recent weeks in England and Wales.

During First Minister's Questions, Carlaw said Scotland was “lagging far behind other parts of the UK in making good use of total testing capacity”.

He added:”It's also reported today that the ratio of care home deaths in Scotland is double that of the figure elsewhere, across the UK. Fewer tests for our care homes, more deaths in our care homes. First Minister, who's taking responsibility for this?”

Sturgeon replied: “I take responsibility for all aspects of the Government's response to this." 

She added: “Can I just say on the point of the rate of deaths in care homes in Scotland compared to other parts of the UK, in fairness to Jackson Carlaw, it's a study that I've only just seen this morning, but there has been a study published this morning by academics at the London School of Economics that suggests that in England and Wales, the real care home, death toll is double what the official figures is showing. 

“Now, this is not some kind of competition, any death toll in care homes or anywhere else is too high and all of us are working to get that down, but I am confident that the figures we are publishing in Scotland are accurate, I'm not sure that's the case, wlsewhere in the UK at right now but it is not for me to to speak to those figures.

“I also know and this is tragic as well, that the percentages of overall deaths that are happening in care homes in Scotland look to be unfortunately in line with many other countries that are reporting these figures.”

In their report, the academics at LSE who have been tracking virus death tolls in care homes globally since the start of the pandemic, said that from 13 March to 1 May, there were 19,938 “excess deaths” in care homes – that is above the average number of deaths for the same weeks in the previous five years.

The researchers added that deaths of care home residents in hospitals are not currently accounted for in the ONS figures and that around 15% of deaths of care home residents happen in hospitals, and that this figure could even be higher.

Carlaw and Leonard also both raised the plight of Highgate Care Home in Uddington, which has lost 22 residents to Covid-19 in less than two months. 

In a report on Channel 4 News, broadcast on Tuesday,  Shona Zellama, a nurse at the care home, said that a resident "died every day" at the height of the outbreak.

She said: "Usually when somebody's health has declined, we have an action plan and a care plan on how we're going to deal with it.

"All we could do is prepare these people to pass."

Another staff member said he believed care workers had carried the virus through the home. 

Highgate Care Home is part of HC-One, the largest care home provider in the UK.

The Holyrood session came as the latest figures from National Records of Scotland revealed that as at 10th May, 3213 deaths have been registered in Scotland where Covid-19 was mentioned on the death certificate.

The total number of deaths registered in Scotland from 4th to 10th May was 1434 (39%) more than the average number of deaths registered in the same week over the last five years, 1,034. 

More than half of all registered deaths involving Covid-19 last week occurred in care homes, 57% compared to 60% the week before. The number of deaths in care homes has gone down for a second week in a row, from 314 to 238.