Members' Business: Amnesty International Report, As If Expendable

That the Parliament notes with concern the Amnesty International report, As If Expendable, which explores what it sees as the care home crisis throughout the continuing COVID-19 pandemic; understands that the report, which focuses on care homes in England, makes a series of damning conclusions about deliberate policy decisions by the UK Government, and other bodies, that consequently threatened the human rights of older people, most specifically the right to life, the right to health and the right to non-discrimination; further understands that the report states that the policy failures by the UK Government, and other bodies, were the failure to provide adequate and good quality PPE at the beginning of the crisis, the imposition of blanket DNR orders on care home residents and older people outwith care homes, mass discharges of older people to care homes at the beginning of the crisis, many of whom were either untested or had a positive COVID-19 test result at the time of their transfer, a failure to ensure regular testing for both staff and residents, a lack of transparency around statistics pertaining to care home deaths and a failure to enable care home residents to access NHS services; believes that the policy decisions outlined in the report have caused a significant amount of unnecessary deaths among residents in care homes; considers that the pandemic, and what it sees as the deprivation of visitation, have also detrimentally impacted care home residents who have survived with, it believes, many having lost some cognitive functions and their ability to move, in addition to the impact on their mental health; further believes that, despite Amnesty International’s report focusing on the UK Government’s approach to care homes, most of the policy failures identified also occurred in Scotland, including in the Lothian region, and notes the calls on the Scottish Government to implement the recommendations set out in the report, in particular the need for an urgent public inquiry into what it considers the crisis in care homes, at the earliest opportunity.