Gabh pàirt

PE2071: Take action to protect people from airborne infections in health and social care settings

Petition Summary

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to:

improve air quality in health and social care settings through addressing ventilation, air filtration and sterilisation;
reintroduce routine mask-wearing in those settings, particularly respiratory masks;
reintroduce routine Covid testing;
ensure staff manuals fully cover preventing airborne infection;
support ill staff to stay home;
provide public health information on the use of respiratory masks and the HEPA air filtration against airborne infections.

Petitioner: Sally Witcher

Status: Under consideration

Date published: 06 December 2023

Click here for the full petition

SPICe Briefing (135KB, pdf) posted 27 March 2024

Committee Meetings

17 April 2024: The Committee agreed to write to the Scottish Government, the Royal College of Nursing, the Royal College of Physicians, Scottish Care, ALLIANCE Scotland and the Care Inspectorate.

Official Report of Meeting 17 April 2024

5 March 2025: The Committee agreed to write to the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care. The Committee also agreed to hold an evidence session on issues raised in healthcare petitions and to consider themes for this session at a future meeting.

Official Report of Meeting 5 March 2025