Five more ways Nicola Sturgeon has failed Scotland

#1 Deaths from COVID testing failure

Think Nicola is doing a great job at steering Scotland through this terrible pandemic?  Let’s talk about testing.

At the end of May, Jeane Freeman stated Scotland had reached a testing capacity of 15,500 tests per day to adequately support the “Test and Protect” scheme as promoted by the Scottish Government.

The opposition parties quickly pointed out that the SNP was only using around half of that capacity, and that they were failing to meet their key promise of providing testing for all care home staff on a regular basis – care homes being the major concern over the number of infections, and sadly, fatalities. 

Despite a promise by ministers that the situation would “change dramatically as the new system comes into force,” on 3^rd July official Scottish Government figures showed only 5,356 tests carried out by the NHS, and at drive through test areas a paltry 34% of the purported capacity available.

The consequences?  In the last week of June, only 23,350 of Scotland’s 50,000 strong care home workforce received the routine test they were promised by the Scottish Government.

According to the National Records of Scotland, 46% of the 4,173 deaths in Scotland, where COVID-19 is cited as the cause of death, occurred in a Scottish care home.

I’m acutely aware of the pain and anguish of the bereaved as a I write this.  As someone with two close family members who are frontline workers within the care sector, this is about far more than politics to me.  

Nicola Sturgeon does not have a monopoly on the emotional outpouring over what has happened during this pandemic, nor does she have the right to use the victims as a human shield to avoid scrutiny of how her failings contributed to the situation.

It is the duty of opposition political parties to hold her government to account, because through a strong opposition comes stronger government, and a stronger nationwide response. Of course, whenever the media or opposition do challenge the First Minister about these facts, she deflects that ‘England is worse’, and moves on. 

But hey, that’s due to the other pandemic Scotland is grappling with – Nationalism.

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