Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

Coronavirus: Jeane Freeman denies her handling of care home outbreak has been ‘unmitigated disaster’

Jeane Freeman.
Jeane Freeman.

Jeane Freeman has hit out at the Westminster government for a lack of consultation on UK-wide coronavirus decisions, as she denied her handling of the crisis in care homes had been an “unmitigated disaster”.

The health secretary told MPs that there was “a vacuum” at the heart of the four-nations approach to tackling Covid-19 and said Boris Johnson’s administration was unwilling to engage in “shared decision making”.

The comments came as Ms Freeman faced criticism herself for the handling of the coronavirus outbreak in Scottish care homes.

There have so far been 1,818 Covid deaths in Scottish care homes, as opposed to 1,815 in hospitals.

Andrew Bowie MP.

North-east MP Andrew Bowie, who sits on the Scottish Affairs Committee, said the handling of the crisis had been an “unmitigated disaster” as he asked the health secretary if she had any regrets.

Ms Freeman responded: “I think that we took the steps that we took in terms of care homes going right back to the beginning of March, based on the information and the evidence we had at that time.

“That’s not to say that I don’t think, with hindsight, there are lessons to be learned and decisions that were made at the time that I would not necessarily make now.”

Mr Bowie said it was an “understatement” to say lessons should be learned.

“This was a poor performance from a failing health secretary who has no regrets and takes no responsibility”, he said after the hearing.

There is currently a vacuum in terms of shared discussion and shared decision making at ministerial level.”

Jeane Freeman

Ms Freeman was later asked to explain how she believed the four-nations approach to Covid-19 had worked.

“There has been significant engagement throughout by scientists and clinicians, as you would expect, that is the nature of the scientific and the academic community”, she said.

“I have to say, though, that the engagement at senior ministerial and political level has not been as consistent as we would wish it to be.

“There is currently a vacuum in terms of shared discussion and shared decision making at ministerial level”, she added.

“The first minister has had calls both with Michael Gove and with the prime minister, but there has been no forums for that shared discussion and decision making, that you would have through Cobra.”

Ms Freeman also revealed that the Scottish Government had not been consulted on the development of the UK Government’s contact tracing mobile app.

She said: “We have not had any involvement in its development.

“As it develops to a point where it is considered viable, we will be wanting to consider how we might use it.”