In the Herald today:
A care home provider has told Scots families that designated visitors will be required to produce proof of vaccination before seeing loved ones despite the First Minister confirming that it would not be a pre-requisite for indoor visits. In a letter to families, Barchester Healthcare, which runs around 200 homes across the UK, said that ‘our current thinking’ is that all designated visitors should be vaccinated and be prepared to produce proof they have received the jag.
Readers will know that the Scottish care home visiting rules are based on the fact that 99.9% of all care home residents and staff have been vaccinated for some time now meaning that visitors do not need to be vaccinated themselves.
Though the Herald seems to have missed the obvious explanation and BBC Scotland sense danger here, it could not be clearer. Barchester know that not all of their vulnerable residents have been vaccinated yet because, in Hancock language, they’re not ‘eligible’ or have only been ‘offered’ a jag.
Were Barchester to have different rules for their homes in Scotland, the media storm would blow.
Barchester Healthcare Ltd have reason to be wary of media attention:
Care home operators ‘beg for taxpayer cash despite being run by offshore firms’…Barchester Healthcare Limited runs 200 care homes and made £1.9million profit last year but paid more than £100million in rent to another UK company which is “owned by common controlling shareholders”. Both firms [HC-One and Barchester] are ultimately owned offshore. Chief executive Dr Pete Calveley earned £914,000 in 2017.
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/care-home-operators-beg-taxpayer-17553469
Talking-up Scotland 'Albatraz' 
Watch this space – sounds like Nicola is going to have strong words with Barchester.
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Tell him Nicola
See you in court pal
And find yourself a bloody top Scots Lawyer
Ya Gonna need one pal
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Apparently it’s Jeane Freeman that’s going to tell them what’s what – she’ll take no prisoners. They might want to watch her in action against Andrew Neil – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhDyN7PCKPo
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Its a mirage
Lets see if it happens in Scotland
I doubt if it will
Any care home introducing rules outside those recommended in Scotland will have a queue of visitors banging on their doors.
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They must operate under Scots law up here
End off
It is our Law
So bloody well apply it
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Can’t imagine people flocking to see their relatives in care homes even if they have had the jag. The worry is the EngGov and the messenger media are going to send out the idea that the vaccine is a cure all, so do as you please, devil may care you can’t catch Covid! The new strain of Covid in Los Angeles is reported as all but resistant to the vaccine, and more transmissible, this thing is not going away.
Why are care homes desperate to have visitors in? If so many residents have died, does that reduce their profits.
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Yes. Look up Barchester’s business model, the rest are not that different – A cash cow requiring 90%+ occupancy, else local bankruptcy assured. Yet shareholders and directors continue to profit by millions, each and every year.
They are desperate for visitors to restore confidence in their cash cow,
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