Care Homes: Coronavirus
(asked on 7th September 2020) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the risks to care home residents of the cessation of visits of (a) family and (b) health professionals during the covid-19 outbreak.
We recognise how important it is to allow care home residents to safely meet their loved ones, especially for those at the end of their lives. We appreciate the particular challenges visiting restrictions pose for people with dementia, people with learning disabilities and autistic adults, amongst others, as well as for their loved ones.
Our first priority remains to prevent infections in care homes and protect staff and residents. On 18 September we published our Winter Plan which sets out tightened infection prevention and control measures to enable visits to continue safely. This guidance is available at the following link:
At all times we have based our advice on the latest domestic and international evidence. We always seek to balance the impact that these measures may have, considering the physical and mental wellbeing of individuals alongside risks around transmission and the need to safeguard those living and working in care homes.