Care Homes: Visits

(asked on 8th December 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what (a) support and (b) guidance is available for family members wishing to visit care home residents where the care homes has been repeatedly in periods of lockdown due to covid-19 outbreaks.


Answered by
Helen Whately Portrait
Helen Whately
Minister of State (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 18th January 2021

We recognise how important it is to allow care home residents to meet their loved ones safely, especially for those at the end of their lives. In the face of a new variant of the virus, we have acted to protect those most at risk in care homes and ensure visits can go ahead safely in some form.

As set out in the national lockdown guidance, visits to care homes can continue to take place with arrangements such as outdoor visiting, substantial screens, visiting pods, or behind windows. Close-contact indoor visits are not currently allowed.

In the event of an outbreak, all movements in and out of a setting should be minimised as far as possible and limited to exceptional circumstances only, such as to visit a friend or a relative at the end of their life. Visits in exceptional circumstances including end of life should always be supported and enabled. This is about finding the right balance between the benefits of visiting on wellbeing and quality of life and the risk of transmission of COVID-19 to vulnerable residents.

We will publish updated guidance when the period of national lockdown ends.

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