Welcome to the Full Scottish from our Cowcaddens Studio in Glasgow.
Full Scottish starts at 12:00 midday on Sunday 19th April 2020
On this week’s Full Scottish, Kenny McBride is joined by Professor Allyson Pollock and Dr Philippa Whitford, SNP MP for Central Ayrshire.
This week, the number of care home deaths came under scrutiny as the ONS in England and the National Records Office for Scotland published the latest figures for all deaths involving coronavirus (COVID-19) and although the English data is a week behind that from Scotland, some similar trends are revealed, however the figures also show some clear differences in the overall outcomes at this stage. Once clear difference is that while Scotland introduced the same lockdown restrictions at the same time as the rest of the UK, Scotland was about 2 weeks behind England in the spread of coronavirus and the result appears to be a flattening of the curve ahead of where it might have been.
The NRS figures show total number of deaths involving coronavirus in Scotland up to 12th April 2020 was 962 – 363 higher than the Scottish Government daily figures at that date. The report also showed that 237 or 24.6% of all deaths reported in Scotland were in care homes, which would suggest either that the NRS data is still under attributing the number of coronavirus deaths, or that procedures in Scottish care homes were resulting in an outcome which is better that the European norm of around 50% of all coronavirus deaths happening in care homes. Small comfort to the loved ones of those who have died, but still something positive in these difficult times.
Another storm blew up in the media this week over the supply of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to care homes in Scotland. It is amazing how quickly some in the media in Scotland can turn these situations into an accusation against the Scottish Government, when the reality seems to be that planning for the supply and distribution in Scotland has been handled much better than what appears to be the situation with the UK Government where it has emerged that hospital staff are being asked to reuse diminishing stocks of PPE.
We are fortunate to have such highly qualified and distinguished guests to discuss all the news on the Full Scottish this week.
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You can find the latest NHS Scotland Coronavirus COVID-19 information here