Work is ongoing to return regular visiting to care homes in Scotland following the Covid lockdown, with progress expected “very soon.”
Adam Stachura, head of policy and communications at Age Scotland, revealed that there was a lot of work underway by the Scottish Government and other organisations to open the doors of care homes in a safe way for both essential and regular visiting.
Residents in care homes have been unable to be visited by family or friends since Boxing Day due to Scotland going into lockdown.
This has led to some deteriorating health amongst them due to being isolated for almost a whole year.
Speaking on Good Morning Scotland, Mr Stachura insisted that progress would be made soon on letting visitors back into care homes.
He said: “We know it has been such a hard time for family members themselves who have not been able to see loved ones and the deterioation in the health of people in care homes has been vast.
“They have largely spent a year in isolation, it’s absolutely heartbreaking hearing of stories of family members going in and seeing this decline.
“We’ve really got to make sure that we can get people back in quickly and be far more consistent.”
“There is a lot of work underway in the Scottish Government and there is a lot of other organisations contributing towards this, looking at how we can get the doors back open again in a far more safe way.
“It’s for essential visiting, regular visiting and to allow much more meaningful contact because it has just been so hard.
“It’s a tough balance between protecting life and also the risk of people not seeing others and their health deteriorating.
“There’s a lot of work underway and we hope to see big progress very, very soon as it has been far too long.”
National clinical director Jason Leitch previously said that indoor care home visits would be allowed “very soon” as the vaccination programme was rolled out.
Speaking at a Scottish Government briefing earlier this month he said: “It’s horrid to have family members who can’t visit other loved ones inside care homes.
“We are very keen that designated visitors will be allowed soon.
“We’re also as keen as we can be that touch will be allowed, but touch is a risk.
“All of this is risky, so we need to do that in a balanced way.”