The widow of a care home resident who died from Covid-19 has been left “angry and heartbroken” after some of her husband’s patient records vanished.
Mandie Harris received an apology from HC-One, operator of the Home Farm care home in Skye where 10 residents died from the virus.
The home is being taken over by NHS Highland following a damning inspection report, while a police investigation is being held into the deaths.
Families have also started legal action seeking compensation and a fatal accident inquiry.
Mrs Harris’s husband Colin died in Home Farm on May 6. She was unable to visit him but later asked for his care notes “for reassurance and closure”.
HC-One contacted her after MSP Rhoda Grant chased up her request.
Mrs Grant has since informed Police Scotland, the Care inspectorate and NHS Highland about the missing notes.
HC-One regional quality director Jackie McDonald told Mrs Harris a copy of her husband’s records were passed to police.
However, she said it had only been possible to locate his care plans and other daily records up to March 28, other than a “small amount of documentation”.
“I understand this will cause further upset for you at an already very distressing time and I apologise wholeheartedly that this has happened,” she said.
“It is completely unacceptable that these records have gone missing and I am very sorry that I have had to give you this news.”
Mrs Harris said: “All I got from HC-One were 33 pages of A4 paper with not a lot of writing on any of them.
“Colin was a resident there for four years and that’s all they have. It’s a disgrace.”
She said she needed to know if her husband was cared for in a dignified way and if his care plan was being followed.
“Now I find out that the home doesn’t have any care records for him for the whole of April,” she said.
“It makes me feel angry and heartbroken. Were these notes destroyed, and if so, why?
“Maybe they never existed.
“How can I be reassured that his care plan was followed if no-one was even looking at his notes or making fresh entries?
“I understand it must have been pandemonium in that care home with all those residents dying so quickly one after the other.
“It must have been really hard, but that doesn’t excuse poor management or poor care.”
Mrs Grant, who took up the family’s concerns, said record keeping was “of paramount importance for residents and families at all care homes”.
She said the loss of the records was “an appalling failure” which had “denied a family their right to know what happened to their dying loved one while they were not able to be at his side”.
The MSP said she was writing to police, the Care Inspectorate and NHS Highland.
She added: “It is unbelievable that these notes have gone missing, if indeed they have even ever existed.”
In a statement, HC-One said: “The challenges Home Farm faced in the spring of this year are well known and we are clear that the standards at that time were not at the level they should have been.
“We have apologised to all families connected to Home Farm for this, and to the Harris family specifically in relation to Mr Harris’s care.
“Given the proposed legal action regarding this home it is not appropriate to make further public comment at this time.”
A multi-agency and large scale investigation into standards of care at the home is ongoing.
A police spokesman said the force continues to assess information provided to it through that process and “to investigate any possible criminal neglect”.
He added: “We can confirm that information gathered during our enquiries into the deaths at Home Farm, Skye, has been passed to COPFS for their consideration.”