Care home residents are set to be reunited with friends and family as visits begin again in England following the publication of long-awaited guidance by the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The guidance states care providers will be encouraged to ensure all visitors wear a face covering and to wash their hands thoroughly before and after putting it on and taking it off.
In addition, visitors should wear appropriate further PPE depending on the need of their visit, including gloves and aprons.
Providers should also consider whether visits could take place in a communal garden or outdoor area, which can be accessed without anyone going through a shared building.
To limit risks, visits should be limited to a single constant visitor, per resident, wherever possible.
Local directors of public health will lead assessments on visiting within their local authority, taken into consideration the situation in specific care homes as well as the community context, including any local outbreaks.
It is expected all care homes will only relax visiting arrangements for specific individual needs and continue to take the health protection of the whole care home as their main objective, but those wishing to visit should speak to care homes before a planned visit.
Care homes are meanwhile being asked to support NHS Test and Trace by keeping a temporary record, including address and phone number, of current and previous residents, staff and visitors as well as keeping track of visitor numbers and staff.
It is recommended they have an arrangement to enable bookings or appointments for visitors – ad hoc visits should not be permitted.
“We are now able to carefully and safely allow visits to care homes, which will be based on local knowledge and circumstances for each care home,” said DHSC Secretary Matt Hancock (pictured).
“It is really important that we don’t undo all of the hard work of care homes over the last few months while ensuring families and friends can be safely reunited so we have put in place guidance that protects everyone," he added.
Care England expressed disappointment that DHSC “took so long” to deliver guidance on visitors to care homes in England.
“This guidance should have been with care providers last month. We are at a loss to understand why the Department of Health and Social Care cannot act quickly in a crisis or why it is deaf to the comments and input from the sector,” added chief executive Martin Green.
Care England also voiced concerned that the guidance does not address a range of issues including: supported living, insufficient information about Local Outbreak Boards, volunteers, support staff ratios, and lack of information about how a dynamic risk assessment may affect the frequency of visits.
“As lockdown lifts we are likely to see many care providers and relatives wanting to take their loved one out for visits. Also, we need to look beyond outdoor visits and recognise that these new conditions may be with us for quite some time,” said Green.
“The failure to acknowledge this nuance underscores the lack of governmental understanding of the complexities present within the adult social care sector,” he added.
