Covid-19 Update
We have had a request from the Islay & Jura Emergency Planning Group to re-iterate our position with regard to the presence of Covid-19 on Islay. Concerns have been raised by the group that people are not paying attention to the social distancing advice from Government as they are under the impression that Covid-19 has not reached Islay.
We have previously stated that we will not be in a position to give updates on numbers of confirmed cases or how many unwell patients we are treating. This is partly due to the fact that we are only able to test people who are admitted to hospital but is also necessary to maintain patient confidentiality.
However, we can confirm that we continue to speak with patients on a daily basis who are displaying classic symptoms of Covid-19 but are not unwell enough to require admission to hospital. We are therefore working on the assumption that the virus is present on Islay and that strict adherence to the government advice on social distancing and staying at home is essential to prevent it becoming more widespread.
We have also been asked to underline the importance of people not travelling to Islay to occupy their second homes. NHS resources are allocated based only on the number of patients who are permanently registered with local GP practices. We do not receive any funding or allocation of essential equipment to deal with patients who do not normally live here and you will therefore be placing a significant burden on a service which may already be overstretched.
Please continue to follow the Government advice and stay home to protect our NHS and save lives.