Most people will have heard about the sad news earlier this week regarding the deaths of several residents of Kingswells Nursing Home from COVID-19. The latest press reports today claim that 39 lives have been lost in care homes in the North East, representing over a third of all COVID-19 related deaths in the area.

Local councillor Steve Delaney said, “My thoughts are with the families and friends of those who have lost loved ones and also with the dedicated staff who continue to provide excellent care at the home and who too, will feel the pain associated with this tragic loss”.

“COVID-19 is something we’ve never faced before and all public services are doing the very best they can under extremely challenging conditions”.

“However, I believe that families who have lost loved ones have the right to know what happened and those who still have relatives in our care homes are very much in need of reassurance, especially since they cannot presently visit their loved ones. Every single life lost matters, the numbers are of so much less significance than each and every individual taken before their time”.

“Following on from the Kingswells announcement earlier this week I have written to the Aberdeen City Health & Social Care Partnership asking for the cause of these deaths to be investigated so that any lessons learnt can be used to minimise the possibility of further outbreaks in care homes and for those findings to be made public”.