Care home residents will be allowed to have one regular indoor visitor from 8th March as part of the government's plan to ease lockdown in England. This has been welcome news for many worried families who have not been permitted to visit their loved ones for months.

The Department of Health said the relaxing of the restrictions struck a balance between the risk of infection and the importance of visiting for the mental and physical wellbeing of residents and their families. However, there is no doubt that care homes will still need to remain vigilant and will be required to closely monitor visits to minimise the risk of infection.

Under the new rules, which are designed to be the next cautious step in bringing families back together, residents will be allowed to hold hands with a single named individual but asked not to hug or kiss their relatives. Covid-19 tests will be required before entry and PPE will need to be worn on site. Outdoor, pod and screen visits will continue in line with the published guidance which has been in place during lockdown, meaning there will be chances for residents to see more than just the one person they nominate. All visitors will receive a lateral flow test and be required to follow all infection prevention and control measures.

The Relatives & Residents Association (R&RA) have previously been applying pressure on the government to urgently amend its Covid-19 guidance for care homes, so the re-vamped measures will be a relief for the charity, who believes that the previous advice which limited visitation of family to an older relative in care strongly impacted on the older person’s human rights. It is cited that the unrealistic and unmanageable safety policies that were put in place in order to reduce the risk of infection had actually prevented care homes from returning to any kind of normality; and resulted in many care homes being in total lockdown with almost all residents denied any face to face contact with a loved one. The R&RA helpline received a high level of daily calls from concerned families detailing the negative impact of continued isolation on their family member with reports of weight loss, confusion, inability to recognise family members, loss of speech and a general lack of will to live. Hopefully with visits now allowed, elderly residents can now enjoy some normality, knowing that they will finally be seeing loved ones in person.

Helen Wildmore, Director of the R&RA commented previously;

“Care providers need clarity and leadership. They need clear, practical guidance and support from the Government about managing visits whilst COVID-free, and planning for if they develop cases. We need to achieve a better balance between protecting people from the virus and protecting their well-being. Care homes are people’s homes. They are places where people should expect a good quality of life, not simply to exist.”

To this end, Care providers will have implemented additional measures. To allow face to face visits safely, they should ensure to collect details and maintain records of visitors on their premises to support NHS Test and Trace. The use of a business management system to monitor visitors coming and leaving is paramount; but if this is not managed effectively, and in many cases done manually then errors could occur.

identeco Time and Attendance Toolkit delivers a wide range of digital solutions to enable safe and secure management of visitors and staff arrivals and departures and reduce the spread of infections in nursing and care homes, hospitals, schools and commercial businesses. It is a powerful and accurate clocking-in system built with the modern workplace in mind. Our software provides an intuitive user experience that will not only track arrival and departure times, but will enhance security by eliminating any fraudulent clock-ins. The Toolkit will allow a user to generate scheduled, comprehensive reports specific to their business needs.

For more information on how we can help protect your employees, families, and residents, contact us here.