New rules could put people at virus risk
The chair of a locally-based care provider says relaxation of home visitation rules is “ill-thoughtout” and could put staff and residents “at possible risk”.
Tony Banks of Balhousie Care Group lamented the timing of the Scottish Government’s announcement late last week, which was delivered as Covid-19 cases were rising.
In-home visits of up to four-hours long are now allowed, as well as hand-holding and up to six visitors in gardens.
While the enhanced visits have been welcomed as being of a health and wellbeing benefit to residents, Balhousie Care Group has said it will not relax its own visiting rules until there are “reassurances of safer and better practices” to minimise the risk of transmission of the virus.
Mr Banks said: “Why, in the middle of another sharp spike in community transmissions of Covid-19, would we relax our rules and put our residents and staff at possible risk of infection?
“Scotland’s care homes went through hell in the spring during the first Covid-19 spike.
“I never want to put our residents, families or staff through that again.
“We n e e d a s s u r a n c e s t h a t w h a t happened then will not be repeated.
“That includes efficient, accurate testing of our staff, with timely results, as well as testing of visitors before entry to our homes.”
Balhousie Care Group – which runs homes in both Blairgowrie and Coupar
Angus – has outlined its support for enhanced visits, but said it will continue with only garden and window visits for the time being, calling it “both practicable and safe”.
Mr Banks, who has publicly shared his frustrations over his staff ’s Covid-19 test results taking up to seven days to be returned, said he welcomed health secretary Jeane Freeman’s commitment o n Monday l a s t we e k t o t ra n s i t i o n care home staff testing from the UK Government to the NHS.
He said: “But we need it to happen now. We need to be confident we are doing all we can to stem possible transmission.”
A Scottish Government spokesperson said: “A recent SAGE paper highlighted
that the level of risk from care home visitors was small and the First Minister has made it clear that visiting is vital to the wellbeing of people in care homes and their loved ones.
“We want to see care home visiting supported to resume safely and, with the correct measures, including safe staffing levels and effective infection prevention and control in place, this is viable.
“At a local level, advice and support to safely resume visiting is available to all care homes via local oversight teams.
“These multidisciplinary teams can provide clinical and professional advice, for example on risk management and infection prevention, and enable informed, collective action.
“We continue to provide care homes with access to PPE where necessar y, which has recently been extended until March 31, 2021.
“Where n e e d e d , c a re h o mes c a n contact their local PPE hubs for additional PPE, including provision for visitors, should there be problems with the normal supply routes.
“Provided the conditions for safely resuming indoor visitations have been met, we strongly urge all care homes to put in place the conditions to support this to happen safely and soon, alongside existing safety measures such as the weekly testing offered to all care home staff, and sample testing in homes with no cases.”