Nicola Sturgeon faces demands to ‘take responsibility’ for failings during Covid pandemic

GB News: Sturgeon urged to 'take responsibility for all the failings'

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Shadow Scottish health minister Dr Sandesh Gulhane has detailed how he was given out-of-date PPE during the Covid pandemic. He has welcomed the Scottish Government’s independent inquiry into the handling of the pandemic which will begin at the end of the year. Speaking to GB News, Dr Gulhane said: “The fact that we’re getting an inquiry is a really big thing.

“We’ve been calling for this for a long time. It’s actually been the reason I got into politics because of how poor communication was between the Scottish government and doctors.

“I was seeing a patient, I gave them advice, and then at 3pm the advice had changed and what I told the patient was incorrect.

“This type of thing just can’t happen again, we need to make sure we learn our lessons and the Scottish government must take responsibility for all the failings that have happened.”

He added: “When we were out on the frontline in Scotland, I got sent out of date PPE with a sticker on top that was just an updated sticker of the sell-by date.

“They had gone and I didn’t feel safe. I didn’t feel I was being valued as a Scottish NHS worker and there was no explanation as to why this PPE was out of date or what was happening.

“The fact that my practice was borrowing equipment from builders merchants, from scouts giving us donations.

“We were in no way prepared for the pandemic and the Scottish Government did not produce the equipment we needed quick enough.”

The First Minister said the judge-led inquiry would have a “person-centred, human rights-based” approach.

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A draft of aims and principles for the inquiry was published on Tuesday, with members of the public invited to comment until September 30.

Ms Sturgeon spoke at a coronavirus briefing in Edinburgh shortly after the publication.

She said of the inquiry: “I can confirm it will be established by the end of this year, as promised, and it will take a person-centred, human rights-based approach.”

Scotland’s top prosecutor, Lord Advocate Dorothy Bain QC, had begun discussions about appointing a judge to lead the inquiry, the First Minister added.

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“It is fully our intention that this will be a judge-led inquiry,” Ms Sturgeon said.

“The inquiry will look at all matters related to the handling of the pandemic that are within our devolved competence, this will include of course the situation in our care homes.”

But she stressed the Scottish Government would “liaise closely” with the UK Government and other devolved administrations on the likely terms of a UK-wide inquiry.

“It will be important to avoid duplication and overlap,” Ms Sturgeon said.

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