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Dec 2020

Last Updated: 03/12/2020

Health

Many Harrogate district care homes yet to reopen to visitors

by Suzannah Rogerson

| 03 Dec, 2020

Judy Bass, from Harrogate, is not holding out hope of seeing her dad before Christmas. His care home has yet to update its guidance post-lockdown.

Judy Bass with her dad

Many care homes in Harrogate have yet to recommence visits despite new government guidance.

The government issued new guidance after lockdown saying 'care home managers are best placed to decide how visits should happen in their own setting in a way that meets the needs of their residents both individually and collectively'.

It also said it was issuing rapid covid tests to registered care homes during December for visitors to use. Each home should have enough to test up to two visitors per resident, twice a week by Christmas.

But right now many people are still unable to visit loved ones in the run-up to Christmas.

Judy Bass, from Harrogate, has only seen her father twice since March and one of those visits took place behind a window. Her father's home is still not allowing indoor visits.

Ms Bass hoped the rapid test kits would allow her to visit but her father's home has still not updated its guidance on visits.

She said:

"It is hard because I have no hope I will see him before Christmas and my dad loves this time of year. All the care home offers is window visits but I don't want to be doing that because he will get upset."

Judy said the care home probably found it "easier to say no" rather than go through the additional strain of testing, which would require visitors having to wait 30 minutes for results.

Planning is in place to demolish a care home on Wetherby Rd to replace it with a larger facility.

Local health bosses say they are ready to roll out the covid vaccine across the Harrogate district.

Elsewhere in Harrogate, other care homes are planning to allow visits.

MHA a charity that runs 83 care homes in England, including Berwick Grange in Harrogate, has said it will allow visits under the new guidelines. But it has yet to receive the testing kits from government.

Allowing up to two visitors, per resident, to be tested twice a week, would significantly increase staff workload.

MHA chief executive, Sam Monaghan, said:

“It is a great step forward that the government has listened to residents and their families kept apart during the pandemic and is making tests available. But to do so without providing the resources necessary is reckless.

“To carry out the volume of tests now required in care homes, we will need at least one more administrative staff member per home. We are talking about a considerable additional workload. The effect will be that frontline staff will be even further stretched."

Do you have a loved one living in a care home? Are you happy to talk about how the pandemic has impacted your visits? Please get in touch with us via contact@thestrayferret.co.uk

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Many Harrogate district care homes yet to reopen to visitors

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