Updated visiting guidelines for our residential care homes – 23 September 2021
Following a detailed review of the Government’s most recent guidance, we have updated our visiting policy for our care homes.
As part of these changes, we have outlined our latest position on visitors who have been in close contact with someone who has tested positive for Covid, as we continue to proceed with caution to protect everyone living and working in our care homes.
We have been delighted to welcome more loved ones into our homes in recent weeks, and appreciate your ongoing support and cooperation in facilitating safe visiting at each of our locations.
Here is a brief summary of the latest changes to our visiting guidelines:
Close contacts of positive cases
We continue to advise visitors to avoid visiting a relative or friend in a care home if they have been identified as a close contact of someone who is Covid-positive, unless absolutely necessary.
Where a visit is assessed as necessary, we will undertake a Risk Assessment with you, and Essential Care Givers and Named Visitors may be able to continue visiting if they are fully vaccinated.
Where visits go ahead, additional testing will be required including evidence of a negative PCR test before the visits commence and evidence of negative LFD test results from tests taken on the day of each visit.
Fully vaccinated residents that are identified as a close contact of a Covid-positive case may also be able to continue to receive visitors.
However, residents are advised against receiving visitors that are clinically extremely vulnerable for 10 days after their contact with a Covid-positive person.
Please also note that in the event of an outbreak in a care home, we may need to temporarily halt visiting, only allowing essential care givers and essential visitors into the home.
Booking
For all types of visiting, booking remains essential. This is to ensure we continue to comply with safe entrance screening and NHS Test and Trace requirements. It also helps us to safely manage numbers of visitors at any one time, maintain safe distances between visitors, staff and other residents, facilitate testing requirements and preserve the privacy and dignity of other residents.
Visitor testing
We hope you will understand the need for us to see proof of a negative Lateral Flow Device status, as this helps us manage the risks of coronavirus while facilitating visits more safely.
The care home can provide packs of seven Lateral Flow Device tests kits for self-testing at home before a visit, or you can get these from community pharmacies, asymptomatic testing sites and via the Government website. Test results will need to be registered on the Government website and evidence of this will be required before each visit.
Please be aware
In the event of an outbreak in a care home, and in line with Government and local Public Health Team guidance, we may need to temporarily halt visiting, only allowing essential care givers and essential visitors into the home.
We will support continued communication between residents and their loved ones through video and telephone calls, and in some circumstances, window visits.
For further details
If you have any further questions or queries about visiting family or friends in or out of one of the care homes, or you would like to receive an updated copy of the visiting policy, please contact the home manager.
We send our thanks and gratitude to the friends and families of residents for their continued support and co-operation, as we anticipate and work through further changes to Government guidance that will enable us to open up homes further for our residents and their loved ones.