NHS Highland declines to reveal to MSP whether five patients were tested, or had Covid-19, before being sent to Home Farm Care Home on Skye; Ten residents at Skye care home lost their lives to the virus
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NHS HIGHLAND has told MSP Rhoda Grant it cannot reveal whether patients were tested for Covid-19 before being discharged from hospital into a care home.
Mrs Grant submitted a Freedom of Information request after five patients from Raigmore Hospital were discharged and went to Home Farm Care Home in Portree, Skye in March.
In April, an outbreak at the same care home claimed the lives of residents who tested positive for Covid-19 in what was one of the worst clusters of the virus in the whole health board area.
But NHS Highland said it was “unable to provide the level of detail you have requested, as this constitutes personal data".
Mrs Grant agreed it was in nobody’s interest to identify individuals but health boards had a clinical responsibility to ensure discharges are safe and she would rephrase her questioning.
According to Mrs Grant’s Freedom of Information request, she asked if each patient had undergone testing, and if so, what were the results.
The health board said: “Detail cannot be provided about the discharges of individuals in relation to Home Farm because of the risk of identifying persons or additional personal information about the individuals.”
It said disclosure would contravene Data Protection.
Mrs Grant said that she would rephrase the question but if it was not successful then she would appeal to the Office of the Information Commissioner.
“We’re not asking for names to be revealed,” she said. “We’re just asking were patients being tested, and if they were being tested, were they positive when they were moved?
“This is a really important issue. People need to know whether or not this happened which is why I have decided to refine my request and if that fails I will take this to the Office of the Information Commissioner.
“There are ways and means of finding things out if they are wholly in the public interest, which this is. We are in the middle of a pandemic, people need to know competent decisions are being made to protect us all.”
