Tory MS challenged after endorsing claim that care home resident was euthanised during pandemic

Martin Shipton

A Welsh Conservative MS has been criticised for endorsing an allegation that an elderly patient was euthanised in a Scottish care home during the Covid pandemic.

Janet Finch-Saunders posted a message that read: “Sadly, this happened frequently in Wales during Covid” in response to a post from an anonymous person whose father died in a care home in the north of Scotland.

The original post named a care home owner and stated: “[The owner] refused to talk to me after my father died in his care home. My father was injected with 11 doses of midazolam and morphine … The detail of this horrific ending of life injection remains a secret held by the care home. They and the COPFS [Crown Office and Procurator Fiscal Service of Scotland] refuse to provide the evidence. [The named care home company] set a lawyer on me to intimidate and scare me off.”

Responding to Ms Finch-Saunders’ endorsement of the allegation and suggestion that such things had happened frequently in Wales, Helen Hough, who ran a care home in Wrexham during the pandemic, stated on social media: “Do you have any evidence of this comment? I am horrified and infuriated you have made this remark especially as the Care Home Module in England and Wales in the Covid Inquiry has just been published.

“Are you suggesting Home Owners murdered people in Care Homes or are you saying it was a directive from the Welsh Government at the time? Please explain.”

Ms Hough later posted a further message that stated: “Has Janet Finch-Saunders actually read the evidence in Module 6 of the Covid Inquiry before making such a flippant comment?

“As a Welsh care-home owner, I find the implication that residents were deliberately overdosed with midazolam to hasten their deaths deeply disturbing. Those of us on the front line know what we endured: inadequate PPE, insufficient resources and a lack of support, while doing everything possible to protect our residents.

“If wrongdoing occurred, investigate it, or have our own inquiry, and establish the facts. But don’t casually cast aspersions on an entire sector.”

‘Evidence’

Anna-Louise Marsh-Rees, who co-led the campaign group Covid Bereaved Families for Justice Cymru and gave evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry, posted a message on X addressed to Ms Finch-Saunders, saying: “This post alleges a man was deliberately killed with midazolam and morphine in a Scottish care home.

“What evidence do you have that this happened in Wales? Failures to protect residents from Covid are one thing; your claims of deliberate killing in Wales are quite another.”

Ms Finch-Saunders, who represents Bangor Conwy Môn, was invited to comment.