Sunday Post, 1st September 2024:
Covid adviser sparks fury with ‘I’m popular in care homes’ claim
Professor Jason Leitch faced anger last night after claiming the pandemic made him a cult celebrity in care homes.
The former National Clinical Director claims the nation is “hugely grateful” for the way he and the Scottish Government handled the crisis.
Covid killed thousands as it tore through residential facilities for the elderly, with many hospital patients discharged into care homes without being tested for the virus.
The Crown Office & Procurator Fiscal Service (COPFS) is still investigating 4,769 deaths at hundreds of care homes. Police Scotland is gathering evidence in all the cases.
In July, Inquiry chair Baroness Hallett published her first report into the pandemic. She found the Scottish Government “did not act with sufficient urgency, or at all” in implementing the findings of an emergency planning exercise.
But, in an interview, Leitch – whose job was to ensure good-quality care and planning was in place – boasts the pandemic turned him into a household name.
Speaking on a podcast for the King’s Fund healthcare thinktank, he said: “I still get people telling me their granny loves me.
“I’m very popular in care homes. I’m not quite so popular if you ran a business or a restaurant when I closed you down.
“But the population are hugely grateful for what we did; the majority of the population.”
Leitch was a key adviser to then First Minister Nicola Sturgeon during the pandemic and one of the most recognisable public faces of the Scottish Government response.
He stood down in April this year shortly after private messages published by the Covid Inquiry revealed he had been scathing of opposition MSPs.
In light-hearted banter with Humza Yousaf – who succeeded then Scottish Health Secretary Jeane Freeman – the pair admitted they were “winging it” during the crisis. And Leitch was also criticised for another exchange in which he said he deleted WhatsApp messages as a “pre-bed ritual”, a claim he later described as “flippant exaggeration”.
In his written evidence to the inquiry, he admitted he was in the room when care home policy was decided but said nothing.
He stated: “In the strategy relating to the role of care homes and those in social care, my role was in communicating with the sector. We discussed infection control, PPE, isolation and the latest science. I was present for discussions between scientific advisers and ministers on discharging hospital patients to care homes, I did not provide advice or make any decisions.”
In the latest interview, he claimed the daily Covid press conferences broadcast on the BBC, in which he often accompanied Sturgeon, only came to an end when his mother got bored of seeing him on television.
Leitch said: “I knew Covid was becoming a thing of the past when I sent my mum a text to say we’re about to start and she wrote back: ‘Thanks, but I’m watching the tennis.’”
Freeman has confessed she is haunted by the tragedy. She told the Covid Inquiry that she would regret “for the rest of my life” any deaths due to official actions or omissions.
She admitted the Scottish Government’s response to the care home crisis was “not as adequate as I’d have wished”.
Aamer Anwar, lead solicitor for the Scottish Covid Bereaved group, said: “I suspect many of my clients, still grieving for their loved ones, will find Prof Leitch’s comments distasteful and bear no resemblance to the impact of Covid.
“Prof Leitch should adopt a period of silence for the foreseeable future as I suspect history will judge his role during the pandemic much more harshly than he judges himself.”