The Courier & Advertiser (Angus and Dundee)
Care homes ban all non-essential visitors
Balhousie Care Group’s preventative measure in bid to ensure health and wellbeing of residents
One of Tayside’s largest care providers has banned non-essential visitors from its homes.
Balhousie Care Group, which runs 25 facilities in the north-east of Scotland, will only allow “essential visits” as a preventative measure to stop the spread of coronavirus, called a pandemic for the first time yesterday by the World Health Organisation.
The company has given its residents ipads to maintain contact with friends and family.
Doctors and district nurses will be given access and essential deliveries and maintenance repairs will continue, the firm said in a statement issued yesterday.
Almost 900 residents live in Balhousie Care Group properties, with more than 1,200 employees working for the company.
A spokeswoman stressed there are no cases of coronavirus among its residents or staff members and the move was a preventative measure.
“The health, safety and wellbeing of our residents is of the utmost importance to us at Balhousie Care Group,” she said.
“Because of this... we are taking the precautionary measure of only allowing essential visits to our care homes.” She said the additional ipads would enable residents to maintain “excellent lines of communication” with “relatives and friends.”
Balhousie Care Group homes include 10 in Perth and Kinross, six in Angus, three in Dundee and one in Fife.
A trio of other care homes in Tayside and Fife have already introduced restrictions on visitors as staff look to prevent coronavirus from infecting their residents.
Ochil care home in Perth, Canmore Lodge in Dunfermline and Dundee’s South Grange are subject to restrictions, said parent firm Barchester Healthcare.
The move came as it was confirmed a second person has coronavirus in Tayside, as the number of Scottish cases rose by a third in a single day.
It is understood 36 people – nine more than on Tuesday – have now tested positive for the disease, according to the Scottish Government.
As well as the Tayside pair, two patients are in the NHS Fife area. No details of any of the people have been revealed.
The figures were released after
Health Secretary Jeane Freeman warned the NHS may need to draft in thousands of trainee doctors and nurses to cope with staff absence rates of up to 30% resulting from the outbreak.
The first case of community transmission of coronavirus was also confirmed by the country’s chief medical officer.
Catherine Calderwood said: “We have identified the first case of community transmission in Scotland which is unrelated to contact or travel. This was identified through our enhanced surveillance scheme.
“It is important to emphasise that we are still in the containment phase.
“This case was to be expected and highlights the importance of the additional measures we have put in place to identify positive cases beyond self-identification.”
Ms Freeman said the Scottish Government is looking to double the number of intensive care units available by making “difficult decisions” to scale down elective work in the NHS, such as hip and knee replacement surgeries.
Ms Freeman said NHS modelling showed the virus could result in an absence rate of between 25% and 30% among health service workers, who are at “greater risk” of contracting the disease as a result of caring for infected patients, even with protective equipment.
To help cope with staff shortages, the NHS is looking at how recently retired staff can return to work, as well as how those who are almost qualified can help.
Ms Freeman said there are “something like 3,000 available nursing students” as well as year-five medical students.
She said that they would only be asked to do what they are trained to do and no more.
With as many as 80% of people potentially becoming infected in the worst-case scenario, Ms Freeman said people must be clear “that we will not be able to make this go away”.
“There will be difficulties, and for all of us, the way we live our lives is going to change for a period of time,” she said.
“People need to think about in what way they can offer additional help to their neighbours or their families, while we try to make sure that professional help that is there to protect those who are most vulnerable and care for those who become sickest.”