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NHS Highland refuses to say whether five patients were tested or had Covid-19 before being sent to Home Farm Care Home on Skye where 10 residents lost their lives to the virus


By Scott Maclennan

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Home Farm care home in Portree.
Home Farm care home in Portree.

NHS HIGHLAND has told MSP Rhoda Grant it cannot reveal whether patients were tested for Covid-19 before being discharged from hospital into a care home.

In April, an outbreak at the same care home claimed the lives of residents who tested positive for Covid-19 in what was one of the worst clusters of the virus in the whole health board area.

Mrs Grant submitted a Freedom of Information request after five patients from Raigmore Hospital were discharged and went to Home Farm Care Home in Portree, Skye in March.

But NHS Highland said it was “unable to provide the level of detail you have requested, as this constitutes personal data."

Now Mandie Harris a widow of one of the residents who died has hit out at the lack of information sharing saying it is in the public's interest.

Mrs Grant accepts that it was in nobody’s interest to identify individuals but health boards had a clinical responsibility to ensure discharges are safe and she would rephrase her questioning.

According to Mrs Grant’s Freedom of Information request, she asked if each patient had undergone testing, and if so, what were the results.

The health board said: “Detail cannot be provided about the discharges of individuals in relation to Home Farm because of the risk of identifying persons or additional personal information about the individuals.”

It said disclosure would contravene Data Protection.

Mrs Grant said that she would rephrase the question but if it was not successful then she would appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner.

“We’re not asking for names to be revealed,” she said. “We’re just asking were patients being tested, and if they were being tested, were they positive when they were moved?

“This is a really important issue. People need to know whether or not this happened which is why I have decided to refine my request and if that fails I will take this to the Office of the Information Commissioner.

“There are ways and means of finding things out if they are wholly in the public interest, which this is. We are in the middle of a pandemic, people need to know competent decisions are being made to protect us all.”

She added: “Looked at on another level, this Freedom of Information ruling could be an important step towards vindicating the public interest in understanding the scope and scale of the Scottish Government’s ability to protect care homes during this pandemic, and the efforts made to conceal it."

Mandie Harris, a widow of Home Farm Care Home resident Colin Harris, who died after testing positive with Covid-19 early in May, said she could not understand why this information was not available to the public.

“NHS Highland certainly isn’t being very free with their information,” she said. They even have excuses as to why they cannot give it out.

"But people do have a right to know about this and I for one am glad Rhoda isn’t giving up. Who are they really trying to protect by not coming clean with the answers? It really makes you wonder.”

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