A PUBLIC health expert has criticised an NHS Scotland report on the pandemic, describing it as “skewed and partially flawed”, with major omissions and gaps, including no mention at all of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Professor Andrew Watterson said the report – Lessons Identified from the Initial Health and Social Care Response to Covid-19 In Scotland – covered many key areas, examples of good practice and lessons to be learned. But it had also omitted whole topics central to learning key lessons.

Watterson, from the Public Health and Population Health Research Group, at the University of Stirling, said it was effectively decontextualised “and misses out the key upstream influence on health and social care responses”.

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He said: “It’s impossible to identify all the bodies, organisations and people were consulted in the report. Who you speak to and who you don’t will often determine what you learn and what you don’t and so strongly influence the shape of a report.

“It’s not apparent who authored the report or from which part of the Scottish Government it emerged.”

The academic said unusually, there were no reference lists, footnotes or bibliographies, which also meant readers could not check or gain further information from background sources: “There are 15 case studies in an appendix. Their selection looks distinctly odd and quirky with no full explanation given for the choices.

“There seems to be a heavy reliance on Canadian and Australian work along with English and Welsh examples but no reference to activities in other countries with significant pandemic control, clinical PPE, and trace and test track records elsewhere in Europe and Asia.

“The WHO ... is totally ignored in the report even though it produced detailed guidance and case studies on these topics.”

Watterson said there was no discussion of Scottish Government failures to introduce lockdowns in early 2020, which impacted on health and social care responses, or an examination of why it “failed to draw on the best international pandemic research” and adopt the successful control measures used globally.

However, it had identified other failings: “The Scottish Government operation of over-centralised decision-making and delivery models without consulting local public health department springs out as a major failure … Other problems were flagged in the context of modelling deficiencies and internal duplication by the Scottish Government of teams working on the same topic along with brief notes of problems linked to decision-making responsibilities between the Scottish and other UK bodies.”

A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “This report sets out the tremendous work of our health and social care system in meeting the biggest public health crisis in living memory.

“While it provides some valuable insights into the first six months of the pandemic, the report is intended as an illustrative examination of the response and the findings were never meant to be comprehensive or definitive.

“We are committed to a full public inquiry which will examine all aspects of the pandemic and are in contact with the UK Government over how that can be taken forward on a four nations basis.”