The Scottish care watchdog has not been answering phone calls from the public since lockdown began, The Courier can reveal.
The Care Inspectorate’s Dundee headquarters have been closed since March and anyone wanting to raise concerns is being told to email, or leave a message to be answered “within 24 hours”.
Now the body, which is responsible for inspecting Scotland’s care homes, has been told to stop “shrouding” death statistics “in secrecy”.
Jackie Baillie, deputy leader of the Scottish Labour Party, said the Care Inspectorate, which has 14 offices across Scotland including the Dundee HQ, has been “posted missing” during the coronavirus crisis.
Ms Baillie made the comments during the parliament’s Covid-19 committee and repeated them during the debate on the latest emergency coronavirus bill.
She later told The Courier: “It is in the interests of everybody during a pandemic, especially when there are hundreds of people dying, to be transparent.
“For families that are losing loved ones, they should be telling people what is going on. They have a right to know.
“I don’t want the care homes, or the Care Inspectorate, to shroud this data in secrecy.”
If the bill passes, from Wednesday care homes will have to make daily reports to the Care Inspectorate, which will then have to inform parliament on a weekly basis.
Scottish Government health secretary Jeane Freeman said during the debate the agency had initially chosen not to send inspectors into care homes, but had now changed that policy.
Some care home providers – including Balhousie Care Group, which runs 22 homes across Tayside and Fife and Barchester, which runs Ochil Care Home in Perth and South Grange Nursing Home in Monifieth – have been criticised for refusing to state publicly if there have been any Covid-19 related fatalities in their homes.
Ms Baillie’s comments came as concerns emerged about the way the body handles complaints from the public during the pandemic
It is understood the Care Inspectorate’s systems are struggling to deal with complaints made over the phone, with the body redirecting complainers to its website or offering a 24-hour call back service.
A member of staff at the Scottish Social Services Council, who did not wish to be named, said they had been receiving calls from people unable to reach the Care Inspectorate with requests for help.
A spokesman for the Care Inspectorate said they are “not aware” of any issues in regards to be people contacting it for support and call backs are currently taking place “within 24 hours”.
He went on to defend the Care Inspectorate’s work during the pandemic.
He said: “The Care Inspectorate is inspecting services and will take robust action where that is required, as evidenced by its recent inspection of Home Farm care home in Skye.
“We do so in a risk-assessed way, and our approach is informed by Public Health advice given the significant risk that our staff could transmit or spread Covid-19 in services and as agreed with Scottish Government.
“Our focus is and always has been the safety and wellbeing of people experiencing care. In response to the pandemic, we adopted a different approach to ensure we continue to carry out our scrutiny role while minimising risk of infection transmission.”
He said the body’s inspectors make nearly 3,000 contacts with services across Scotland every week.
“This contact includes video consultation and observation that includes examination of the service’s environment, systems and processes. We continue to act on the concerns and complaints people raise with us.
“The Care Inspectorate has been working closely with local health and social care partnerships, directors of public health, local infection prevention and control teams, and other clinical specialists to provide an enhanced system of assurance around each care home in Scotland as requested by Scottish Government.”
