Former chief medic Catherine Calderwood excused from UK Covid inquiry evidence

Scotland’s former chief medical officer Dr Catherine Calderwood has been excused indefinitely from giving evidence at the UK Covid-19 Inquiry.

Dr Calderwood served as CMO when Nicola Sturgeon was first minister during the early weeks of the pandemic.

She was forced to resign in April 2020 following revelations she had travelled to her holiday home in breach of lockdown rules.

The Daily Telegraph reports inquiry chairwoman Baroness Heather Hallett has decided Dr Calderwood “should be excused from further participation” due to ill health.

It means she will not be called to give evidence at Module 2A of the inquiry, which will examine decision-making and political governance in Scotland.

In a statement published on the inquiry website, Baronness Hallett said she had reviewed medical updates.

She said: “I am satisfied that Dr Calderwood should be excused from further participation in the inquiry. I will review in the event that the situation changes.”

Dr Calderwood did not give evidence to the Scottish Covid-19 inquiry earlier this year.

However she spoke at an earlier part of the UK inquiry in July last year, discussing preparedness for the pandemic.

She said capacity issues in Scotland’s NHS make it “extremely, extremely difficult” to plan for a future pandemic.

Dr Calderwood was appointed as national clinical director of the Centre for Sustainable Delivery at the Golden Jubilee hospital in Clydebank in 2021 but no longer holds this role.