THE Scottish health secretary has conceded that not enough Borders care home staff have been tested for coronavirus.

The admission from Jeane Freeman MSP came after Borders MP John Lamont asked several questions during Westminster’s Scottish Affairs Committee meeting on Thursday (April 11).

Figures show 22 care home workers were tested in the Borders in the week beginning June 1, bringing the cumulative total to 343.

But Ms Freeman, of the SNP, said testing 22 members of staff in one week "is not sufficient".

At the end of May, Ms Freeman called for health boards across Scotland to ensure all care home staff are regularly tested.

After Thursday’s meeting, Mr Lamont – who represents Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk – said he was “glad” to hear Ms Freeman’s admission.

The Conservative politician said: “The tragic deaths in care homes in the Borders and indeed across Scotland are deeply distressing.

“I am glad that the health secretary was able to finally admit that testing care home staff has just not been good enough so far.”

Mr Lamont added: “It is essential that Jeane Freeman takes responsibility and increases testing for care home staff immediately.

“Staff and residents, as well as their families, need to be reassured that their loved ones are safe.”

A total of nine care home residents with coronavirus have died in the Borders, according to the most recent statistics published by the National Records of Scotland.

In a written statement, NHS Borders chief executive Ralph Roberts said that, over the past month, the health board and the council have been overseeing the testing of care home residents and staff at premises with virus cases or suspected cases.

Plans have been “refined” over the past two weeks, according to Mr Roberts, with tests carried out in three ways.

This is the full statement from Ralph Roberts

"In May the Scottish Government indicated that we should move to a position where we were carrying out quick testing of all residents and staff in a care home if there was a positive case and weekly surveillance testing of all staff in care homes with no COVID cases.

"Access to testing and laboratory capacity to analyse test results is through two parallel routes: NHS Testing teams and NHS hospital laboratories; [as well as] UK Government testing arrangements (mobile testing teams / online portals for public, employers and social care), supported by the UK Government sponsored laboratories (for Scotland based in Glasgow and sometimes referred to as the Lighthouse Laboratory).

"In the Borders, NHS Borders, in conjunction with SBC, have been supporting the testing of all residents and staff in care homes with any positive or suspected cases over the last month. 

"In addition we have been training care home staff so that they can administer the test locally. 

"The laboratory support for these tests has been provided through the NHS Laboratory system (either directly in the Borders General Hospital or in conjunction with NHS Lothian).

"Following the request to develop a plan for rolling out testing to all care home staff on a weekly basis, we submitted an initial plan to Scottish Government on May 29.

"In this draft plan we confirmed that since we would not have the capacity to support the requirement through the NHS Laboratory system, we would therefore be looking to deliver this through the social care portal and Lighthouse Laboratory.
"This was in line with the approach taken across the country and we have always understood that there would be adequate capacity to deliver this through the alternative routes. 

"It was therefore never an issue that we would not be using the NHS laboratory. 

"Over the past fortnight our plan has been refined, and testing will be delivered in three ways:
1. Testing in homes with positive cases – via NHS test teams and lab; 
2. Weekly surveillance of staff in care homes with no positive cases and some residents as part of sample surveillance testing using 480 tests per week through the social care portal;
3. Remaining tests through the employer portal and access to the mobile testing units / regional testing unit.

"We will continue to refine the approach based on our experiences as we go forward.

"We would like to emphasise that at no point did we indicate there was not adequate overall testing capacity for the Borders."

UPDATE: June 15 at 1pm

Mr Roberts added: “NHS Borders is pleased to confirm that we have now tested 343 care home staff.

"The tests done up until last week were those tests carried out on staff who were symptomatic or were working in a care home with a resident who had confirmed COVID-19.

"Because the number of homes directly affected by COVID-19 in the Borders has been comparatively low this is therefore reflected in our testing numbers.”