Evidence presented to the Scottish Inquiry

Tragic testimonies ignored by mainstream media

The Scottish Inquiry has heard repeated testimonies on a wide range of topics, but what has been said in relation to what happened in care homes during lockdown is particularly striking. The stories are those of neglect, abuse, denial of healthcare and repeated misuse of end of life medication resulting in deaths. Witness after witness has given concurring evidence.

These stories have only really reached our attention thanks to the work of an independent citizen journalist (“Dave”) on Twitter and Substack. Neil Oliver has been the only mainstream journalist to have reported on these stories on his show in GB News, including interviews with our two co-chairs, Dr Clare Craig and Dr Jonathan Engler.

Here we publish a summary of the evidence from one woman which manages to encompass almost every aspect of the harm caused in care homes. It is the story of her grandmother who was admitted to a care home for mild dementia in autumn 2020.  

“My gran was a very mischievous little old lady who was great fun and very talkative. She used to be a very active person when she was younger and tried to keep that up when she was older but, in her later years, she was less active due to widespread pain, and she was unsteady on her feet.”

After a fall “Social Services then intervened and said that they felt my gran should be in a more regimented type setting.”

“I actually took her to the home and that was very difficult as I just had to hand her over to a care home staff member and leave her as I was not allowed in.”

The staff called her by the wrong name but she didn’t know because she depended on lip reading and they were all masked.

~1st Nov 2020:

Positive test result for covid they called to say “my gran had tested positive but that she was fine and that they would keep us updated.”

2nd Nov 2020:

Granddaughter asked to authorise Do Not Resuscitate:  

“My answer first of all was, ‘Well, why are you asking me that, as you said she only had mild Covid?’. My second point was that this was not a decision I would make at the moment as my grandmother was lucid, still talking and it would be a discussion to have with her.”

Despite this, a DNR was put in place without proper authorization.  

3rd Nov 2020:

They proposed giving her a “mild sedative” to keep her from removing her nasal cannula. The family agreed, not realising it was Midazolam, which can suppress respiratory function.  

“On the 3rd November 2020, about 3 o’clock in the afternoon the care home contacted my mother to explain that her (grandmother’s) oxygen saturation had dropped but that it was generally due to the fact that she had a nasal cannula and that every time she went to the toilet she kept forgetting to put it back in.” 

“At this point my grandmother was eating and drinking by herself, moving to the toilet herself, that there was only mild symptoms and that they were giving her the nasal oxygen just as a precaution as her stats were a little low but, with the cannula in, she was fine. Her stats had actually improved from the previous day according to her medical records.”

“I later found out my grandmother was on a full end of life protocol put on place by the doctor “just in case”. I don’t understand why this was administered as we were at no point informed that she was end of life and if we had been then why had we not been called to be with her? The way I look at it is that I think they have looked at her notes and seen the medication from the earlier shift and thought that she was “end of life”. My mum was never told it was Midazolam when the home asked if they could give my gran a mild sedative.”

4th Nov 2020:

Granddaughter received a call at 4:11 am saying her grandmother had deteriorated. When she arrived at 4:30 am, she was told her grandmother had died at 4:20 am and went in.

“there were only three staff members, including one nurse, caring for 26 residents”

“She was stone cold and, in my opinion, she had been dead a lot longer than twenty minutes.”

“There was no cannula or oxygen tank in the room.”

“The funeral was also difficult because of the numbers that were allowed. I think a lot more would have been there in normal times. The people there had masks and there was no singing. My gran had loved music and she liked singing. Years before, my gran had given me full instructions for her funeral and I could only follow some of them. When you can’t fulfil somebody’s dying wishes because of rules, it’s hard. To go there and not be able to hug your mum or your dad or your brother is really difficult.”

It’s shocking to imagine one person experiencing all these horrific events. Now consider the reality: each of these horrors has actually happened to countless individuals. This widespread suffering is even more disturbing.