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Prosecutors probe hundreds of covid hospital deaths |
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Nearly 800 covid-19 deaths across 50 Scottish hospitals are under investigation by prosecutors after cases were reported by medical staff.
The move comes despite advice from Scotland’s top law officer that hospital deaths did not need to be reported except in exceptional circumstances.
A total of 776 reports of covid-related patient deaths in hospitals in Scotland have been made to the Crown Office Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) Covid Deaths Investigation Team (CDIT), according to data released to healthandcare.scot following a Freedom of Information request.
The deaths of six NHS staff are also under investigation by the CDIT.
This represents around 13% of the 6,106 deaths in hospital associated with covid.
All bar two deaths under investigation were referred by a medical professional. One was reported by family members and the other by a trade union.
The COPFS says the figure does not include deaths at home addresses, hospices or care home residents where the resident died in hospital after contracting covid in a care home. It told healthandcare.scot all cases remain live.
The COPFS says that at the start of the pandemic the Lord Advocate issued a direction that covid-19 (or presumed covid-19) deaths did not require to be reported to them, unless there was another substantive reason for doing so. The COPFS says this was “consistent with the approach which had been taken in Scotland previously in relation to other significant outbreaks of infectious disease”.
This changed in May when the Lord Advocate decided that, in response to “public anxiety”, all cases where the deceased may have contracted the virus in the course of their employment, for example as an emergency service worker, and deaths among care home residents had to be reported. No new guidance was issued for hospitals.
However, some hospital covid deaths still required to be reported. Under section three of the guidance, these included where medical staff thought the death had been caused by fault or neglect or where they believed it could be the subject of a future Adverse Event Review.
The decision to treat care home and hospital deaths differently has been criticised by the care sector.
A Scottish government spokesperson said that decision was one for the prosecution authorities:
“A multi-agency information gathering process in relation to deaths in care homes, under the direction of the Crown Office, is underway, carried out independently of ministers, so it would be inappropriate for the Scottish Government to comment further at this time.
“Decisions on the investigation of any death are for the Crown Office and Lord Advocate.”
The COPFS has provided a breakdown of the hospitals where covid deaths are under investigation:
*The COPFS says that, while it aims to disclose all data, if there is a quantifiable or identifiable risk that release could lead to the disclosure of personal information relating to individuals, all or some of the data will be withheld.
Read more: Health Secretary: No double standards on NHS and care; Care home deaths probe branded ‘unequal’
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