Shocking evidence presented at the Scottish Covid Inquiry will detail how care home residents may have been “neglected and left to starve” during the pandemic.

The initial Scottish COVID-19 Inquiry’s Health and Social Care Impact Hearings are being held this week.

Shelagh McCall KC, who is representing Bereaved Relatives Group Skye, said: “As well as revealing the suffering of individuals and their families, we anticipate the evidence in these hearings will point to a systemic failure of the model for the delivery of care in Scotland, for its regulation and inspection.

“We anticipate the Inquiry will hear that people were pressured to agree to do not resuscitate notices, that people were not resuscitated even though no such notice was in place, that residents may have been neglected and left to starve and that families are not sure they were told the truth about their relative’s death.”

A major Covid outbreak took place at Home Farm care home on Skye at the height of the pandemic during which 10 residents died.

NHS Highland took over operation of the home from HC-One in November 2020.

Families of the residents who died have launched legal action against the home.

The deaths are being investigated by the Crown Office.

In its opening statement to the Inquiry, Scottish Care said the pandemic had “brought great trauma and pain to many people who received social care in care home settings”, and acknowledged “the challenges faced by frontline staff and the impact upon friends and family members who were in many cases bereaved as a result of the pandemic and who in other cases we unable to be with family members when they wanted to be”.

The Inquiry continues today.