A care home provider has told Scots families that designated visitors will be required to produce proof of vaccination before seeing loved ones despite the First Minister confirming that it would not be a pre-requisite for indoor visits.
In a letter to families, Barchester Healthcare, which runs around 200 homes across the UK, said that 'our current thinking' is that all designated visitors should be vaccinated and be prepared to produce proof they have received the jag.
The First Minister confirmed yesterday that vaccination would not be a requirement and Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has written to Barchester demanding an urgent meeting.
New guidelines published today state that care homes should support two visitors to see family members twice a week from early March or sooner if it can be facilitated. Figures released today show that care home deaths have fallen by 69%.
The Health Secretary said the new guidance means contact with loved ones should become 'normal practice' in adult care homes in all but exceptional circumstances, such as a Covid-19 outbreak.
She added: "We hope to gradually increase the frequency and the number of people who can visit."
Scotland's national clinical director Jason Leitch said he was "disappointed" by the actions of Barchester and said the layers of protection in place, including 100% vaccination of residents, PPE, testing and hand washing is "enough for this level of visiting to come back."
READ MORE: Campaigner says care home visits must remain even if new variants arise
The care provider is to write to the Scottish and UK governments to lobby for visitors to be fast-tracked for vaccines and said all staff will be required to have been vaccinated by April 23, "although we are prepared to delay that date if there is any data regarding safety, efficacy or effect on transmission which requires further review."
The letter states: ""We are conscious that currently anyone over 70 years old should have been offered the vaccine and that the current Government target is that all over 50 year olds will be offered vaccination by April, and our thinking is that many of our designated visitors should be in this group, and therefore able to be vaccinated very soon, if not already.
"In order to support this, we will be lobbying for a designated visitor to be prioritised for a vaccination.
READ MORE: Labour leadership hopeful vows to end 'unfair' care home dementia tax
"As part of the vaccination programme you are usually issued with a vaccination card or proof of vaccination via an app, and we would hope that you would be able to share this detail with us."
In a statement today, the company did not make any mention of visiting policy.
A spokeswoman said: "As of 24th February, we are delighted that 90% of our residents and 82% of our staff have now had at least the first part of the COVID-19 vaccine, and many more are awaiting their vaccine following being COVID-19 negative for 28 days.
"Overall, we are seeing strong uptake and positive engagement, and we’re further encouraged by the research showing the effectiveness of both the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines in reducing hospital admissions by 85% and 94%.
"Following staff engagement and a full risk assessment, we have introduced a new policy in which we expect all staff to have had the vaccine by 23 April 2021, although we are prepared to delay that date if there is any data regarding safety, efficacy or effect on transmission which requires further review.
"We have set out a number of acceptable exemptions, including, at this stage, pregnancy, and exempted staff will operate with enhanced PPE.
"Our long-term ambition is that all patient and resident-facing staff will have the COVID-19 vaccine in order to protect both themselves and the vulnerable residents and patients in our care.
"We are very aware of concerns around possible discrimination which is in no way our intention. We are doing everything possible to ensure fairness whilst also delivering on our duty to protect our residents, patients and staff.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel