A care home provider has bowed to pressure after stating that relatives would be required to be vaccinated before indoor visits were permitted.
Barchester Healtcare said it intended to follow Scottish Government guidance and said vaccinations would not be mandatory following criticism from families.
The firm, which runs around 200 homes across the UK including 19 in Scotland, had said in a letter to relatives that visitors should also be prepared to produce proof they have received the jag.
Nicola Sturgeon said on Tuesday that vaccinations would not be a pre-requisite for indoor visits and the Scottish Government said it intended to write to the firm asking for an urgent meeting.
Scotland’s clinical director Jason Leitch said the layers of protection in place in care home, including 100% vaccination of residents, PPE, testing and hand washing was sufficient to allow visits to resume.
In a statement, Barchester Healthcare said: "We are looking forward to having visitors back in our homes in an appropriately safe manner.
"We will be aligning with Government guidance ensuring the designated visitor(s) per resident are supported in complying with the protocols including the use of PPE and being tested using a Lateral Flow Device test before entering a home, and our preference is that they are also vaccinated, if possible, but as many of our relatives have told us they are not able to be vaccinated as yet this is not something we will mandate.
“However we are lobbying with the Government for designated visitors to be prioritised for a vaccination and will continue to engage with relatives and residents.”
New guidelines 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.
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 here