Care Homes (Visits)

– in the Scottish Parliament at on 17 September 2020.

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Photo of Willie Rennie Willie Rennie Liberal Democrat

4. Yesterday I met Cathie Russell. Her mother is in a care home. They are not allowed to meet for more than 30 minutes a week and they are separated by a plastic screen. They have not hugged or held hands for five months. Her mother’s health is in decline. Cathie says:

“People in care homes need their families.”

In Toronto, a limited number of family carers can visit care homes. They have personal protective equipment and they are tested. Why is the First Minister opposed to that for Cathie and her mother?

The First Minister:

Such questions are legitimate, but any tone that suggests that I am willingly or deliberately trying to keep families away from loved ones in care homes is not.

These are difficult decisions. The health secretary will be meeting representatives of families tomorrow. They have legitimate concerns.

There will be few of us who do not have some experience of family or friends who have been in care homes. We know that visiting is a fundamental part of the health and wellbeing of those who live in our care homes, but that is particularly true for people with dementia. It is hugely difficult for all of us to see and hear the distress of families who are not able to interact with loved ones in the normal way. However, the restrictions are ultimately in place to try to help us protect care home residents and save lives. It is important that, as we take those decisions, we continue to recognise the risks of communal living and the risks of infections getting into care homes.

That said, the guidance on families and relatives entering care homes remains under regular and on-going review—as I said, the health secretary will meet family representatives tomorrow—and we look at whether we could put more protections in place to allow a more normal visiting regime in care homes. I take all those issues seriously and probably no decisions have been more difficult and at times more genuinely upsetting than the range of decisions that we have had to take around care homes. We all want to allow families to visit normally as quickly and safely as possible, so we will continue to take these difficult decisions with the best of intentions but the greatest care as well.

Photo of Willie Rennie Willie Rennie Liberal Democrat

The First Minister might not like what I said, but I have discussed the situation with the health secretary and the national clinical director, so I know what issues are at stake. The situation has been under consideration for weeks but, to be frank, Cathie cannot wait any longer. She needs change now. Cathie’s mother comes into contact with multiple carers every day, yet the most important carer of all—her daughter—is left outside. A similar situation is happening to hundreds of people every day—a fraction of them were outside the Parliament building yesterday. So, extend testing, give Cathie PPE, check her temperature, make her self-isolate—do whatever it takes to keep people safe—but let her in. Will the First Minister make that happen?

The First Minister:

I think that Cathie is one of the family members that the health secretary is meeting tomorrow. Around 40 per cent of the care homes around the country now allow and enable indoor visiting, and obviously we want to see more able to do that. Will I make that happen? I will try to take decisions that strike a balance between allowing families to have normal interaction with their loved ones, which I absolutely understand they want, and ensuring that we are doing everything appropriate to protect people in care homes. Those are not easy decisions, but it is my job to take them, along with the health secretary and colleagues across the Government. We have to do that and to listen to a range of voices and understand all the difficulties.

I do not enjoy making those decisions at all, but we will try to make them, taking the best advice and all the factors into account and balancing them in order to get to a position where we can have families able to visit normally in care homes, which is what everybody wants more than anything else. However, I also want to ensure that we avoid a situation a few weeks from now—I do not mean this to be in any way critical, before Willie Rennie suggests that I do—where Willie Rennie is asking me questions about why we have outbreaks of infection in care homes. That is the difficult balance that we have to try and strike, and we will continue to try to do that with the best of intentions. That is an assurance that I can give to not just members across the chamber but families across the country.