HEALTH Secretary Jeane Freeman and the SNP are facing heavy criticism after admitting that returning patients from hospitals to care homes during the early days of the pandemic was a “mistake.”

Ms Freeman, who will retire in May, said the Scottish government had failed in “understanding the social care sector well enough” and “didn’t take the right precautions” when older people were leaving hospitals.

The former nurse made the comments in an interview on the BBC Politically Thinking podcast on Thursday night, the day that Scotland’s coronavirus death toll passed 10,000.