For residents at Rothsay Grange care home in Andover, this has been an emotional week.

Having not seen their family members for many weeks, the residents finally reunited with their loved ones this week following the relaxation of lockdown rules.

Despite the need for testing and social distancing, it was still welcome news for many residents and their family members to be able to meet in the comfort of their bedroom.

Residents and their relatives enjoyed getting together and catching up face to face.

The current rule says one named visitor is allowed to visit each resident in their bedroom.

Barchester Healthcare, which runs Rothsay Grange care home, is proceeding with a safe and cautious approach to visiting. Strict protocols are in place with all visitors required to have a negative Lateral Flow Device test result before being allowed into the home, and infection control measures and social distancing in place for every visit, with hand holding allowed but not recommended.

Amanda Cussen General Manager at the home, said: “This is the first cautious step towards having a buzz of visitors in the home again.

“It was wonderful to see how happy it made the residents and their relatives. We have a great booking system in place to ensure the visits are well organised, and visitors are doing a great job of following the safety measures to keep everyone as safe as possible. 

“For those that are not able to come inside the home we are pleased to be able to continue to offer visits in our visiting suites or outdoors when the weather allows.”

Mary, one of the residents at Rothsay Grange, said: “The staff here have been so wonderful supporting me to use video calls and creating the visiting suite so I could keep in touch with my family, but nothing beats seeing my daughter in the comfort of my bedroom.

"This was a special moment, and I was over the moon.”