Nicola Sturgeon apologised to 18,000 vulnerable Scots given incorrect information on how to combat the coronavirus as she stood by her embattled health secretary.
The first minister defended Jeane Freeman and described Scottish Conservative calls for the health secretary to quit as “absolutely and utterly disgraceful”.
Tory leader Jackson Carlaw urged Ms Sturgeon to get rid of Ms Freeman after it emerged thousands of people who have been shielding at home received a letter misinforming them about when it was safe to go outside.
The NHS letter wrongly suggested that shielded individuals could go outside this week (June 8) when the correct date agreed by health experts was June 18.
The mistake was publicised hours before Ms Sturgeon announced at her daily coronavirus briefing that shielding for the 180,000 people who have been subjected to the most severe restrictions is to be extended until July 31.
Mr Carlaw claimed the mix-up was the latest in a series of blunders that could be laid at Ms Freeman’s door.
In a statement, the Conservative mentioned the Scottish Government’s handling of the outbreak at the Nike conference at the outset of pandemic.
The party also pointed to Ms Freeman giving an incorrect estimate of the number of patients discharged from hospital to care homes without routine tests.
They also accused her of failing to pass on vulnerable patients’ details to supermarkets so they could receive supplies. The Tories also mentioned high-profile controversies involving infections and deaths at Glasgow’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital and delays to the new Sick Kids hospital in Edinburgh, which occurred before the pandemic.
Nicola Sturgeon has to take the blinkers off and find someone who can actually get on top of these problems.”
Jackson Carlaw, Scottish Conservative leader
Mr Carlaw said: “Jeane Freeman was already on borrowed time before coronavirus hit. But as this crisis has unfolded, a number of issues have unfolded on her watch which were completely avoidable, and enough is enough.
“The testing structure under the SNP has been a disaster, to the point where care homes have been left in the lurch, and now she can’t even say when hospital staff will be routinely tested.
“The misplaced loyalty shown by the first minister to her health secretary is having a negative impact on the NHS. A litany of problems had built up before, not least infection deaths of children at the SNP’s flagship hospital in Glasgow, and the continued unacceptable delays of the new Sick Kids in Edinburgh.
“These have been compounded by a dismal performance during the pandemic too. Nicola Sturgeon has to take the blinkers off and find someone who can actually get on top of these problems.”
But at her daily coronavirus briefing, Ms Sturgeon reacted furiously to Mr Carlaw’s criticisms. She admitted there had been an “administrative error” when it came to the inaccurate letter to those who were shielding.
She apologised “deeply and sincerely” for the wrong date, saying: “Mistakes like that should not be adding to the distress you are already feeling and I can only apologise for that.”
When asked about Mr Carlaw’s call for her to “part company” with Ms Freeman, Ms Sturgeon hit back angrily.
‘Absolutely and utterly disgraceful’
The first minister said during the pandemic she had resisted the temptation to make party political points in the interests of tackling the crisis and had rejected invitations to criticise the UK Government.
But she said she would react to the Tory statement, because she thought it was “absolutely and utterly disgraceful”, suggesting that Mr Carlaw’s party was without shame.
“Unfortunately, I don’t find it surprising,” she said. “I say this more in sorrow than in anger. For the last few weeks the Scottish Tories have seemed to me to be not very interested at all in the real issues that we are grappling with and dealing with here. They have seemed to me interested only in party political politics and trying to undermine a health secretary who is literally working round the clock to deal with most difficult issues that any of us have ever dealt with.
“Actually that kind of approach says more about the Scottish Tories than it does about the health secretary or about the Scottish Government. I would say they should be ashamed of themselves, but I’m not entirely sure they have any shame based on the statement this morning.”
She added: “During a pandemic calling for the health secretary to be sacked is just party politics at its worst and doesn’t have any place in what we are dealing with right now. “
Ms Sturgeon said she and Ms Freeman would concentrate on getting on with the job of dealing with the Covid-19 outbreak.
