The measures were implemented during what has been one of the most challenging months ever for health and care services in South Lanarkshire.

At the turn of the year, health and care services across South Lanarkshire were faced with escalating pressures – and this was particularly pronounced amongst the Care at Home workforce. For that reason, South Lanarkshire Health and Social Care Partnership activated a range of pre-organised and temporary measures to prioritise community health and care provision for those people at most risk within local communities.

Soumen Sengupta, Director of Health and Social Care, explained that despite the pandemic continuing to present significant challenges, the South Lanarkshire Care at Home Service is now in a position to carefully reintroduce its full range of supports for local people.

“In common with other areas in Scotland, our Care at Home Service had to contend with extreme challenges over the festive period,” said Mr Sengupta.

“The safety of those in our care and of our staff is my priority – and for that reason necessary and temporary changes were enacted so that we could continue to prioritise support to the most vulnerable in our communities.”

As pressures escalated in the festive period, Care at Home staff undertook an exercise to assess the needs and risks to each service user with existing care packages. Where temporary changes could safely be made, discussions then took place with the service user, their family or their friends.

Mr Sengupta added: “These short-term changes have been absolutely necessary to enable us to protect those most at risk in our communities.

“However, myself and my team have always been clear that we would look to step out of these contingency measures at the earliest opportunity that it was safe to do so.

“Having monitored the situation closely, we are now in a position to do this - and so I have made the decision to carefully reintroduce the full range of our care at home services. We are currently writing to all service users to inform them of our position.

“I completely appreciate how frustrating and worrying this time has been for many people. Myself and my colleagues very much appreciate everyone’s patience and understanding.

“We are also extremely grateful to those families and friends who have helped care for service users for their ongoing support. We are committed to continuing to work with them as we navigate our way through the challenges we will face in the days and weeks ahead.”

Mr Sengupta added: “Across our South Lanarkshire communities our dedicated staff continue to work around the clock - and they do this because they care. I thank them for their continued fortitude, their professionalism and their compassion.

“I would also like to thank all our local partners for their ongoing assistance throughout this period. The solidarity and support across our Council and NHS services, our local voluntary organisations and our Lanarkshire Resilience Partnership has been overwhelming”.