A rising number of families are struggling to visit elderly relatives after some care homes stopped visits.

Health Secretary Jeane Freeman told the Scottish parliament today she is to write to all care homes in Scotland explaining the new restrictions announced yesterday were designed to keep care homes open for visiting, not to close them down again.

Ms Freeman explained families had contacted her to say the home where their loved one was residing had stopped visits “at the request of the Scottish government”.

But, the Health Secretary said, “nothing could be further from the truth” and that she had asked the head of Scottish Care – Dr Donald Macaskill – to inform providers that the latest round of covid restrictions do not impose any additional limits on care homes.

“First of all we already have 40% of our care homes who meet the criteria [for visiting], which is that they have to be covid free for 28 days and they have to take part in the covid care staff testing programme,” Ms Freeman explained to MSPs.

“The 40% of homes who meet that criteria already have indoor visiting – outdoor visiting remains – but I actually spoke to Mr Macaskill and the Care Inspectorate this morning.

“I raised my concern that I too am receiving emails from a number of family members telling me that their care home has now stopped all visiting and that they are saying they have stopped it as a requirement of the Scottish government and nothing could be further from the truth.

“I intend to write to all care homes, as I did before around the question of testing, to remind them that the restrictions imposed yesterday do not impose additional restrictions on care home visiting.

“On the contrary, part of what we are trying to do with what the First Minister said yesterday is not only keep education open, but protect and keep our care homes open to visiting.”

Work is also underway she said with a care home relatives representative group and with the government’s Clinical and Professional Advisory Group to see how the duration of visits might be extended, and whether loved ones can be allowed to eat together as part of efforts to enable more “normal” visits.

Earlier this week the chief executive of Scottish Care Dr Macaskill warned that the longer residents were kept apart from their loved ones, the greater the risk more people would be lost to the country’s covid response “rather than to the disease itself”.

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