As part of our continued work to relax visiting guidelines and get back to a ‘new normal’ in our care homes, we are happy to announce that, with immediate effect, indoor visiting can now take place seven days a week. As before, our residents can receive up to two visitors at a time, from different households if necessary, and these do not have to be designated visitors.

The number of garden visits are unlimited and masks are not mandatory for outdoor visits, although this is a matter of personal choice. In order to help us manage outdoor visits, a maximum of six people per resident can visit outdoors.

Indoor visits should be booked online through our secure booking link or by calling the care home directly, so that we can safely manage the number of visitors on-site.  Our garden and outdoor visits do not need to be booked in advance.

Please know that each of our care homes is different, and that includes their indoor and outdoor layouts, and their capacity. For that reason, we would ask that you are patient with our care home teams and work with them as they do their best to accommodate our visitors’ needs in a fair and reasonable way.

Testing

  • Community transmission of COVID-19 is still high and we continue to do everything possible to keep our residents, staff and families as safe as possible. For that reason, a negative Lateral Flow Test (LFT) is necessary for indoor visits.
  • To ease the burden on our care home teams, we would ask that visitors self-test at home with an LFT where at all possible.
  • The test should be done up to a maximum of 48 hours before you visit the home. That test is then valid for 48 hours after the visit.
  • You can obtain free LFT test kits online at https://www.gov.uk/order-coronavirus-rapid-lateral-flow-tests or free from any pharmacy.
  • To report your test results, visit https://www.nhsinform.scot/campaigns/coronavirus-covid-19-report-your-test-result You will receive confirmation of your result via text to your phone, or email. Please bring this confirmation with you to the home when you visit.
  • Visitor self-testing will be offered at the home should you have no access to the Internet or a test.

Thank you for your cooperation. I am sure you will agree that this is another important step forward for our residents and families as we continue to open up our care homes with as much care as possible.

 

Yours sincerely,

Sheilah Harvey

Head of Operations