Renaissance Care founder Robert Kilgour has called on former First Minister Nicola Sturgeon to “tell the truth” over why Scotland waited five days longer than England to test hospital discharges to care homes during Covid.

The call came ahead of Sturgeon’s appearance before the UK Covid-19 Inquiry this morning.

Kilgour told Caring Times: “They need to tell the truth about why there was this disconnect. It’s not fair to those who tragically lost their lives, their relatives and friends and also the care staff on the frontline. Why was there this disconnect on testing of hospital discharges between Scotland and England?”

Kligour said the Scottish government had a “healthy track record” of doing “exactly the opposite” to what happened in England.

The Scottish government introduced testing on hospital discharges on 21 April 2020, five days after it was introduced in England.

Half of the deaths in the first wave of the pandemic in Scotland occurred in care homes.

Former Scottish health secretary Jeane Freeman told the inquiry earlier this week she would regret the Covid deaths in care homes for the rest of her life.

Kilgour “getting truth out of the Scottish government, was during the pandemic and sadly still is, like getting blood out of a stone. It’s an insult to the memory of those who lost their lives and their relatives and friends and to frontline care staff. They need to tell the truth”.

The Scottish entrepreneur described revelations that the government deleted WhatsApp messages during the pandemic as “a scandal”.