Care home activists have called for an end to the “harmful limitations” on visits that remain in place after Covid.
According to Care Quality Commission (CQC) recommendations, family members should be allowed to visit without restriction unless there is a Covid outbreak in the residence, in which case “each resident should be entitled to have one visitor at a time.”
However, advocates have cautioned that “too many” people continue to be subject to harsh limitations in the name of “protection.”
The National Care Forum, Rights for Residents, and other organizations have urged health and care executives to “stop damaging isolation practices.”
In a letter, they expressed their deep worry that “the current “one at a time” approach is not being followed” and that “many family still say they are being refused access to loved ones during outbreaks.”
“Those in hospitals and care homes should not be deprived of the comfort of frequent visits, and even during a Covid outbreak we are clear that one visitor should still be permitted access,” a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Social Care said.
“People living in care have been left behind,” said Helen Wildbore, director of the Relatives & Residents Association, “while life has returned to normal for the rest of the nation.”
Too many people continue to be subjected to severe limitations on their everyday activities, all in the name of “protection” and “public health,” oblivious to the suffering caused by isolation.
“After two and a half years, we still haven’t grasped the most fundamental lesson of this pandemic: without the assistance of loved ones, individuals suffer immensely from mental and physical illness.
‘Risk-averse practices have become profoundly ingrained, and older individuals are still paying a high price for the mistakes made in the early phases of the epidemic.
Public health teams urgently need to take a step back to understand the full scope of this public health catastrophe and to uphold their legal obligations to safeguard the general public’s health and welfare.