Relatives plead for care home isolation rules in England to be relaxed

Families of care home residents isolated in a rising wave of Omicron lockdowns are pleading to be allowed in, saying they can alleviate staff shortages and comfort loved ones facing a winter of loneliness.

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Photograph: Christopher Thomond/The Guardian

Relatives have warned of more deaths triggered by isolation unless ministers ease rules requiring settings with two or more positive cases to close to all but essential caregivers for up to 28 days.

Related: Hundreds of UK care homes closing their doors as Omicron spreads

The number of English care homes that recorded at least one positive Covid case in the last week of 2021 rose nearly 40% compared with before Christmas, to 764 – more than at the previous peak of the pandemic in January 2021.

Families have also described anguish at not being able to help with chores as care home staff rotas are decimated. With high levels of triple vaccination in care homes and an apparently less dangerous virus in circulation, the health secretary, Sajid Javid, is facing calls to let families reunite.

“The impact of loneliness and isolation has far outweighed the impact of Covid on care home residents in the later part of the pandemic,” said Jenny Morrison, a co-founder of the Rights for Residents campaign group. “We need to ensure that measures put in place to protect residents are proportionate to the current situation.”

Sixty-five people died from Covid in England’s care homes in the week to 31 December, compared with about 1,850 in January 2021.

Birgit Clark, whose daughter Franziska, 26, has severe learning difficulties and lives in a care home in Cheshire, said: “I want to go in and help her out. It’s horrific. I just don’t understand why you would not utilise someone who is willing and able and free when you are struggling. We could all be happier.”

Clark said her daughter was getting less time walking outside, their visits together to shops and cafes were now prohibited and Franziska was becoming more withdrawn. “I have said I will drop everything and will help out, but we’re not allowed to do that,” she said. “My daughter is alive and well, but she doesn’t have a life.”

Joanna Casson, a registered nurse who is no longer able to visit her 81-year-old mother at her Teesside nursing home after an outbreak started after Christmas, said: “Everyone needs more than just the medical side of care. They need love and stimulation.”

Her mother is confined to her room and cannot have a shower or bath. Casson used to visit most days and would care for her mother’s nails, wash her hair and give her massages. She now visits at the window and talks to her by phone.

This week the Plaid Cymru MP Liz Saville Roberts told Boris Johnson in the Commons that she feared separation from her mother, who has dementia, when she moves from a hospital into a nursing home.

She said: “The human rights of disabled people, sick people and the elderly are not fair weather luxuries, and everyone with dementia, wherever they live, has the right to care from a family member.” The MP is set to meet Javid next week to press the case for greater rights of access.

Care home operators have also called for restrictions to be lifted. The chief executive of Four Seasons Health Care, Jeremy Richardson, told the Guardian it was “an outrage” that people were being deprived of their right to receive visitors. Sam Monaghan, the chief executive of MHA, criticised the “huge disparity” between the seven days isolation for the general population and 28 days for care home residents.

At Summerfield House care home in Halifax, a substantial outbreak among residents and staff has led local health officials to impose a 28-day lockdown, although no one is seriously ill. Penny Hutchinson is allowed in as an essential caregiver for her mother, Yvonne Williamson, 81. With 10% of staff off with Covid, she wants access for her siblings and for other residents’ families to help.

“When she [her mother] sees carers, she knows, her face lights up. But she won’t drink and take food from [staff] she doesn’t know,” she said. “What they do when there is no stimulation is they sleep and then people don’t want to disturb them for a drink and it leads to dehydration. That’s not just happening in Mum’s home but across the country.”

When asked for a response, a spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care cited visiting guidance for homes without outbreaks. “We are doing everything we can to support care providers to facilitate safe visits and guidance was changed to allow each resident three listed visitors, as well as an essential caregiver, either a family member or friend, who may visit the home to offer companionship or help with care needs,” they said. “Essential caregivers should be able to visit inside the care home even during periods of outbreak.”