THE SCOTTISH Government has been urged to speed up its decision-making on relaxing rules around care home visits.

Relatives of those in Scotland's care homes have previously pleaded with ministers to be allowed to visit their loved ones indoors.

Commitments have previously been made to examine whether anything could be done, but any progress appears to have stalled over the last few weeks. Matters have been hampered by a surge in coronavirus cases across Scotland in the past few weeks, forcing tighter nationwide restrictions to be imposed.

Nicola Sturgeon confirmed that officials are still weighing up how rules can be safely relaxed without risking vulnerable care home patients being exposed to the virus. During the first wave of the pandemic, care homes were hotspots for outbreaks.

At First Minister’s Questions, Liberal Democrats leader Willie Rennie pointed to the case of a 94-year-old woman who is “terrified of being alone” and has been left “distraught” by not being able to see her family.

He added: “I understand that the decisions are tough, but they will not get any easier if we keep on delaying them.

“The families want to see their loved ones. It has been months now, and they are desperate. I know that the First Minister understands that, but I urge her to try to move faster on the issue, because that is what the families need.”

The First Minister insisted that “we all deeply care about the issue” and admitted that “decisions on that issue are probably the toughest”.

She said: “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, because we know from the dreadful experience earlier in the year about the harm and damage that that does and the toll that it can take in terms of deaths.

“Therefore, we are treating those issues carefully, and we are considering the issues deeply.”

Ms Sturgeon told MSPs that Health Secretary Jeane Freeman has met with concerned relatives, stressing that “we are acutely aware of the importance of visiting for health and wellbeing”.

She added: “A process is already under way, which started in late June, if memory serves me correctly. That is a staged approach to the reintroduction of visits in care homes. It started with outdoor visits and now care homes are looking to reintroduce indoor visiting.

“The restrictions that were announced last week for the population have not affected that. In fact, part of the reason for putting those restrictions in place is to try to get the virus under control so that we do not have a situation in which we cannot proceed to greater flexibility around care home visiting.”