The Health Secretary has admitted that hospital staff are ‘not routinely’ tested for Covid, and she doesn’t know when they will be, despite a pledge to dramatically increase this regime weeks ago.

This compounds the SNP’s failure to test care home staff recently highlighted by the Scottish Conservatives.

The Health Secretary made the admission on this morning’s Sunday Politics Scotland. Ms Freeman went on to admit that she also didn’t know where patients who had acquired Covid in hospital had died.

The Scottish Conservatives have strongly criticised these admissions and stated the Health Secretary appears to have ‘completely lost her grip’ on the Covid crisis.

Jackson Carlaw, Scottish Conservative leader said:

“The Health Secretary appears to have completely lost her grip on the Covid crisis.

“The SNP government promised to dramatically increase hospital staff testing but still, weeks later, not only is nothing in place, Ms Freeman cannot tell us when it will be.

“Ms Freeman couldn’t even give the public basic information about where patients who contracted Covid in hospital died.

“The SNP abandoned care homes to be ravaged by Covid, they appear to have done the same thing to hospitals also.

“Jeane Freeman’s excuses keep getting thinner meanwhile thousands of tests are unused each day.

“Nicola Sturgeon says she takes responsibility for her government’s approach to Covid and I agree – the First Minister is responsible for these catastrophic failures.”