Only 4% of whistleblowing complaints about Scottish care homes were fully investigated last year as thousands succumbed to Coronavirus, according to a report.
Of the 1340 concerns reported by staff and former workers, 56 were escalated to a full inquiry by the Care Inspectorate, which said the pandemic "significantly" affected its response to disclosures.
The regulator said onsite complaint investigations were not always possible due to public health guidance and the risk of transmitting and spreading infection.
It meant that 61% percent of complaints received in 2020-2021 were simply logged as 'intelligence' compared to 34%, the previous year.
Scottish Labour's health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie described the figures as "utterly astonishing" saying staff sounding the alarm had been "ignored".
The report also found that 7% of whistleblowing concerns were referred to providers to investigate compared to 18% the previous years.
The campaign group Care Home Relatives Scotland said it was of concern that the number of disclosures was broadly similar to the previous year (1377) despite the Care Inspectorate acknowledging that many services were shut during the first wave of the pandemic. This also suggests that the majority of complaints concerned care homes.
Of those complaints that were investigated, 44 were upheld and 23 resulted in a requirement for the service to make improvements and staffing was highlighted most often.
The Care Inspectorate said a higher number of...
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