As a preventative measure to protect the health of all our residents and staff we are advising people not to visit our care homes unless it is essential, until further notice.
We have contacted all relatives and friends of our residents to advise them of our guidance and to inform them of how they can continue to keep in touch with loved ones during this difficult time.
In addition to family and friends, other non-essential visits suspended include hairdressers, entertainers, volunteers, and external trainers. We will ensure that essential services such as medical visits still take place as required.
We are carefully monitoring and reviewing the situation in our homes and can confirm that we currently do not have any suspected or confirmed cases of COVID-19 coronavirus. We are following Health Protection Scotland/NHS Scotland latest guidance for residential settings with a clear focus on the wellbeing of our vulnerable residents and staff.
As we all appreciate, the spread of COVID-19 continues to escalate therefore we must take all the measures available to us to protect the frail elderly people that we care for and minimise any potential risk. This is in line with wider care sector guidance.
This decision has not been taken lightly as we understand how important and valuable regular visits from family and friends are for everyone. We will be helping to facilitate video and phone calls with residents where possible as-well as maintaining regular contact through our local management and staff teams.
In the case of an emergency, or other urgent situations, we will seek to facilitate visits which will be considered on an individual basis. We ask that family and friends discuss this with the care home manager as early as possible. Only visitors who have been screened to ensure they are not displaying symptoms will be allowed to enter our homes.
Our staff have an even more important role to play during this outbreak, and we are supporting them to follow the latest guidance and care procedures. We are working closely with our teams to monitor their own health and well-being and to review our processes to deliver essential care, should any of them be affected. We want to take this opportunity to thank them all for their amazing hard work, dedication and resilience.
We will continue to provide regular updates to all relevant parties and thank everyone for their support and understanding.