Government plan for care home visits will be ‘incredibly difficult’ for North-East

Homes in the North-East keen to welcome back families and friends have expressed their concerns over the newly announced Government plans to allow visitors to return.

And they believe the decision has been made without proper consideration of what precautions will need to be taken and the measures care homes will have to put in place.

Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, had announced that more than a million rapid testing kits are being sent out to homes in the next month, so that visitors can be checked for Covid-19 before being allowed in to see their loved ones.

But providers fear that this decision will compromise infection control and put added stress on the homes, which are already receiving calls from family members asking when they can visit.

North-East care home bosses claim there is a great deal of "care and alarm" over what they believe is a hastily thought out plan which does not consider the many implications.

To date no homes have received testing kits or information on how staff are to be trained to carry them out.

And Care North East members add they are being left with little support to put the logistics in place, with some of the region's local authorities telling homes to refuse visits rather than offering them help to facilitate them.

Keith Gray, from Care North East which represents hundreds of homes across the region, believes the decision is a hasty one.

"We know how difficult it has been for people not to be able to see their relatives in the past month," he said.

"And while we understand the sentiment behind this decision, the Government has not taken into account the practicalities.

"Firstly if staff have to administer the tests, that will take them away from other work, which will put additional burdens on the home.

"Also if it is an elderly person waiting to visit, do they have be made to stand outside in the cold for half an hour, waiting for the result?

"There's also the concern about how many people can be allowed in at the same time, as everyone will want to see their relatives and it puts extra pressure in terms of infection control.

"There is a lot concern among our members that this hasn't really been thought through properly."

One boss has raised worry over the level of administration which would be required to book in visits and organise and carry out the testing.

Justin Russi runs four homes – one in County Durham and three in East Cleveland – as part of the Hawthorns Lodge Care Group.

He said: "From our perspective we worry about how we are going to get all this testing done. It's going to be very busy just carrying out tests because it takes three days to get staff through the tests as it stands now."

There are also fears that the lateral flow tests which are used in rapid testing have a significant number of false negatives, according to a study by Public Health England and Oxford University.

Another North-East provider who did not want to be named said: "This is a badly thought out plan which is going to cause even more heartbreak and put more pressure on care homes.

"We want nothing more than facilitate visits for families but it needs to done in a way that is safe, sustainable and does not take staff away from their primary role –caring for our residents. It is going to be incredibly difficult."