Decisions on care ‘should not be any different to normal non-pandemic times’, Scotland’s Public Health Minister has said in response to concerns raised by organisations representing Scotland’s carers.

In a virtual meeting with Minister Joe Fitzpatrick, hosted by healthandcare.scot, Claire Cairns from the Coalition of Carers in Scotland and Fiona Collie of Carers Scotland said many carers have reacted with fear and alarm at reports that their loved ones will not be prioritised because they have a disability or are older.

“There is evidence of blanket requests from GPs to complete Do Not Attempt CPR forms without proper discussion,” says Fiona Collie.

“This is something that needs individual conversations and actually should be part of an anticipatory care plan anyway.

“People who are being approached who have previously said that they do not want to complete one have been approached again.

“Equally there was material published over the weekend related to decisions around treatment and some of that seem to be saying that simply because of age, you could be scored lower; and simply because of needing help with everyday tasks you could be scored lower, and that is not an assessment of actual physical health. It is an assessment of having some sort of disability.”

“This is really an area where carers are quite frankly terrified for the life of the person they care for and we really need some strong leadership, some strong guidance from government and the medical profession to say that all lives are valued equally and that assessment around treatment will be on the best clinical decision and no other basis for the decision.”

Claire Cairns told the minister that there is a lot of concern across Scotland’s community of people with disabilities and their loved-ones:

“We’ve heard reports from parent carers who are extremely worried about their disabled children and whether or not they will receive treatment if they have to go into hospital with the virus.

“I think it is something that the Scottish government has to come out and be honest about, be transparent about and hopefully reassure people that decisions won’t be made, as we were saying, on anything other than clinical decisions.”

Mr FitzPatrick said he “completely understands” the anxieties surrounding this issue:

“I want to echo the very clear line that the First Minister has made on this, that no one in our society should be pushed or coerced into signing one of these forms, under any circumstances.

“We expect clinicians should use their judgement in situations where it is necessary to have anticipatory care planning conversations.

“However, we are clear that we expect everyone especially those who are elderly or vulnerable to always be treated with dignity by health and social care professionals.

He added: “On the wider point about carers being concerned that care and treatment might not be prioritised for certain people I want to be clear that decisions on care should always be made on an individual basis depending on clinical circumstances and should not be any different to normal non-pandemic times.

“We want everyone regardless of their age or disability to feel assured that they will receive treatment and care that is intended to benefit them.”

Following concerns raised earlier this month over older people being discriminated against as increasing pressure is placed on health resources due to the pandemic, Scottish Care and the Royal College of GPs Scotland moved to reassurance older people and particularly care home residents.

A joint statement was issued which said care home residents will still be visited by GPs during the covid-19 pandemic if needed.

The government also promised a revision of current policy that was being interpreted as advising a blanket ban on the admission of care home residents to hospital if they had covid-19. An update is expected later this week.

Click here to watch whole meeting.

Click here for a transcript of the questions and Mr FitzPatrick’s answers.

 

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