Care home provider is challenged over vaccination request for visitors
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The Scottish Government says it has written to Barchester Healthcare, which has two care homes in Caithness, asking it to adjust its view that people should be vaccinated prior to visiting relatives.
In a letter to families, Barchester, which runs around 200 homes across the UK, said "our current thinking" is that all designated visitors should be vaccinated and be prepared to produce proof prior to visiting its homes.
Barchester, one of the UK's largest care providers, operates Seaview House in Wick and Pentland View in Thurso.
However, First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has said that a vaccination would not be a prerequisite for care home visits, and Scotland's health secretary Jeane Freeman has written to Barchester seeking an urgent meeting.
New guidelines from the Scottish Government state that “routine indoor visiting of care home residents by relatives, friends and carers will be able to resume from early March with care providers supporting residents to have up to two designated visitors each and one visit a week for each visitor”.
Latest figures show that deaths from Covid among care home residents in Scotland have fallen by 69 per cent since mid-January.
Scotland's national clinical director Jason Leitch said he was disappointed by the actions of Barchester and felt that the layers of protection in place, including vaccinations for residents, PPE, testing and hand-washing, were "enough for this level of visiting to come back".
In Barchester's letter to families, the company 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.
"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."
A spokesperson for Barchester Healthcare said: “We are looking forward to having visitors back in our homes in an appropriately safe manner. As such we think it is important to take a cautious and phased approach, ensuring the one designated visitor per resident or patient is 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 desire is that they are also vaccinated, if possible.
“In order to support this, we are lobbying with the government for designated visitors to be prioritised for a vaccination. We are engaging with relatives and residents and taking a phased and cautious approach.”
