RESIDENTS of Scotland’s care homes will soon be able to hug and hold hands with their relatives and visitors for the first time since the coronavirus lockdown.

The changes to the Covid-19 guidance is due to be brought in this week after Health Secretary Fiona Hyslop met with representatives of Scottish Care “to look at different approaches to get greater normality into visiting”, according to the First Minister.

Once the changes are brought in, care homes that have been Covid-19 free for 28 days and meet other existing criteria on staff testing will be able to implement the new guidelines.

Nicola Sturgeon said it had been difficult to make decisions around the issue as, while visits are “part and parcel of the essential care” a person needs, the risks of Covid entering a care home setting are very high.

She said: “We all care deeply about the issue.

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“Among a whole series of tough decisions that governments everywhere are having to take right now, the decisions on that issue are probably the toughest.

“On the one hand, I desperately want families of residents in care homes to have normal visiting; on the other hand, I desperately want to do everything that we can to avoid the risk of Covid getting into care homes.”

Professor Fiona McQueen, Scotland’s chief nursing officer, said the Government now recognised that they needed to “adjust our approach” when it comes to care home access.

Now, Cathie Russell, co-founder of Care Home Relatives Scotland campaign group, told The Daily Record that she had met with the Health Secretary and been assured changes would be brought in this week.

She said: “We had a positive meeting and I can confirm that some of our key requests are to be written into the guidance.

“Jeane Freeman told us that, from next week, homes that have been Covid-19 free for 28 days and meet other existing criteria on staff testing will be able to implement the new guidelines.

“We can say to them that the nominated visitor of the resident, or their back up, should be able to visit more often and for up to four hours in the resident’s own room.

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“The importance of touch would be emphasised and the designated visitor or their replacement will be able to sit and have tea in the resident’s own room, hug and hold hands and be without a chaperone.

“This definition would be widened and homes encouraged to be more generous in how essential visiting is applied.

“We still have a long way to go and, for many families in lockdown areas, little is likely to change in the short term but this is still very good news.”

Scottish Government guidance currently says residents can either have garden visits with up to three visitors from no more than two different households at the same for 30 minutes once a week, or an indoor visit from one person for 30 minutes once a week.