Scottish Government guidance on covid-19 needs to be urgently changed to prevent vulnerable groups being discriminated against in treatment decisions, the Equality & Human Rights Commission (EHRC) has said.

The UK watchdog is calling on NHS Scotland to formally affirm that blanket approaches to treatment decisions based on age, medical conditions or disability are wrong.

Statements were issued by health bosses in England accepting that treatment based on categorising large groups of people into groups should not happen, following pressure from campaigners.

It comes after Scotland’s human rights commission said it was “extremely” concerned that the list of factors for doctors to consider when making treatment decisions, which includes age and whether someone is in a nursing home, could lead to a one-size-fits-all policy being applied incorrectly.

Guidance to help NHS staff make difficult decisions was published earlier this month by the Scottish Government, which says the rules will be continuously updated to reflect the fast-moving situation.

The EHRC say the advice needs to be “reviewed urgently”.

Alongside other changes, it is calling for NHS Scotland to follow its English counterpart and revise the guidance to make sure people with learning disabilities or long-term but stable disabilities are not denied treatment.

A system used to assess how frail a patient was and therefore how likely they were to benefit from treatment attracted criticism after it appeared to exclude these groups.

NHS England subsequently clarified it should not be used “in younger people, people with stable long-term disabilities (for example, cerebral palsy), learning disability or autism.”

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