Self-isolation rules in care homes should be changed to prevent whole facilities stopping non-essential visiting if one resident tests positive for coronavirus, the Scottish Liberal Democrats have said.
Party leader Alex Cole-Hamilton said he has heard from a care home manager who warned many homes have gone into an “informal lockdown” after a single positive result.
He said different infection control measures are needed in light of the Omicron variant.
The impact of social isolation is affecting care home residents, he said.
Mr Cole-Hamilton said: “Infection control has deprived people of human contact and supportive relationships for months on end.
“Last week, a care home manager in my constituency wrote to me in despair warning that homes up and down the country are still in a kind of informal lockdown because when a single resident tests positive it confines that person to their room for at least a week, but then in most cases it also leads to the suspension of non-essential visiting for the entire home, plunging those who live there back into the kind of isolation caused by the first and second lockdowns.
“The sheer scale of Omicron transmissibility has meant that most of Scotland’s care homes see outbreaks with almost weekly regularity.
“Yet we are still applying infection control measures that were suited to life-threatening variants.
“That is why I’m calling on the Scottish Government to revise guidance to care homes so that we need not deprive these vulnerable citizens of human contact any more than is absolutely necessary.”
