Our latest Community Column is written by Mary Fee, Labour MSP for the West of Scotland region.
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You would be forgiven for assuming that after four months of a global crisis the Scottish Government would have a handle on the ongoing coronavirus crisis in our care homes. Yet the reality is more distressing.
Care homes have been at the epicentre of the crisis in Scotland. Residents and staff have sadly lost their lives. Now there are reports that new residents are not being tested before moving to care homes from the community.
Reports that GPs and public health officials are refusing to test new care home residents is deeply distressing, and another issue in a long list of the mismanagement of the crisis for our elderly friends and family in care homes.
READ MORE: Four residents die after testing positive for Covid-19 at Helensburgh care home
Another case of mismanagement is the claim that tracking Covid tests for residents and staff in care homes has been abandoned because it has become unreliable.
The Scottish Government promised regular testing for all care homes’ residents and staff after pressure from Scottish Labour. Unfortunately this has not happened, and the promise has now been abandoned.
Half of all coronavirus deaths in Scotland have occurred in care homes. The Scottish Government has presided over a crisis in care homes and failed to protect staff and residents, and enough is enough.
READ MORE: This simple search tool shows Covid-19 death toll in Helensburgh and Lomond
Meanwhile, I am backing Scottish Labour’s ‘Jobs for Good’ campaign, which was launched to call for Scottish Government to act on employment.
We will be calling for targeted interventions in public services, the energy sector, manufacturing, tourism and hospitality to prevent further jobs losses when the furlough scheme ends.
Last month, our unemployment rate became the highest of all four nations within the United Kingdom. We want a jobs guarantee scheme that provides fairer, greener and better jobs.
That means jobs that are paid at the trade union rate, or at least the Real Living Wage, jobs in growth industries to rebuild our economy in a responsible and sustainable way, and employment underpinned by childcare provision.
This crisis has brought into sharp focus just how fragile and unequal Scotland’s labour market really is. The impact of this global pandemic is beginning to have devastating effects on Scotland’s workers, their livelihoods and their families.
We need to rebuild our economy to provide better jobs, tackle poverty and invest in communities.
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