Care homes must be the priority. The alternative is unthinkable

It’s been a long six-and-a-half months since Balhousie Care Group decided to restrict visiting to its care facilities. The impact on our residents, relatives and staff is clear every day. It is affecting them physically and emotionally, made all the worse as there seems to be no end in sight. This week the Scottish Government’s focus has been on restricting household visits and socialising among the general population. Let’s not forget this has been the norm for our care home residents for more than six months.

The current situation surrounding testing – which is nothing short of chaotic – means a double blow for us. As the rules stand, Public Health imposes a closure on a care home if a resident or staff member tests positive for, or is showing symptoms of, Covid-19. Because of the high rate of false positives we’re experiencing, this is creating turmoil in our care homes. We may be closed down one day, then have staff or a resident re-tested as negative, and after informing all relatives that their upcoming visit to the home is cancelled, we’re back on the phone telling them it’s on again.

It’s an emotional rollercoaster for our residents and their loved ones. Meanwhile, our staff are daily playing a game of Russian roulette, never knowing whether they are asymptomatic and possibly infecting society’s most vulnerable residents, because they’re still waiting for results from a test done days before. This is an untenable situation and one that is deeply unfair. We refuse to end up on the bottom of the pile again, as happened in the spring.

Scottish Government must turn its attention immediately to care homes, make sure our staff and residents have priority when it comes to testing, and take steps to vastly improve the efficacy of the tests themselves. Otherwise, we face a repeat of what happened during the first peak of Covid-19 cases. That is a heartbreaking prospect, made all the worse by the knowledge it could have been avoided.