Visits during Coronavirus - Covid-19 2nd Lockdown
Following the Governments announcement of a 2nd lockdown, we continued to support our residents and their loved ones seeing each other, whilst keeping them and our staff safe.
In accordance with the latest guidelines the rule of 6 has now been reduced to one visitor per resident at any one time, visitors must wear a face covering and all visits must be pre booked.
Throughout the summer we supported outdoor and open-door visiting and so prior to the announcement, we started construction of "family rooms" to enable visits to be comfortable during the coming colder months.
Following on from the Governments announcement of a second lock down, guidance has since been released for the provision of visits to care homes and how these could be facilitated.
Throughout the summer we have continued to promote and support the ongoing visits of up to 6 people with the use of PPE and maintaining social distancing rules. However, as the Autumn arrived the weather also changed bringing high winds, rain, lower temperatures and the rule of 6 has also now been removed.
Before the Government announced the second lock down, we had begun to construct “family rooms” in the grounds of the homes starting at Godolphin House. These will be a solid construction with a power source which will allow heat and light to be installed. To maintain best practice and infection control procedures, we have also invested in our own antiviral fogging machines which will be used to clean down and fully sanitise the family rooms after each visit to prevent cross infection and or contamination.
These will take some time to construct for several reasons but including the delay and some limitations of accessing building materials so please bear with us! Once these are completed, we will issue guidance on their use and how to access these.
In the meantime, and whilst the family rooms are being built, please continue to visit our care homes ensuring you follow the guidelines below to maintain safety and social distancing.
- Please always call the home to pre book your visits. This is so we can manage visitors coming and going to our care homes and so we can provide the best support to the person you are visiting.
- Visits need to be carefully managed and until the new family rooms have been completed, these will need to continue to take place outside in the garden/grounds of the home.
- All visitors and the person being visited must wear a face covering at all times and maintain a distance between each other of at least 1 meter. This obviously means no shaking hands, hugging/kissing.
- Only one visitor per resident is allowed at any one time, please do not arrive with another person.
The residents have really enjoyed being able to see friends and family again and we can’t stress how important this is and has been for their wellbeing.
We are hopeful that once the current lock down restrictions have been lifted, we will be able to offer people a trip/drive out to see any Christmas lights and a drive around the local areas.
We are pleased to report that we are still completely clear of the virus throughout the organisation. We continue to have good access to weekly and monthly Covid tests for all staff and residents and we have good supplies of PPE.
We continue to review our policies and will update you all as and when it is needed, however most of these do relate to staff.As always, please do contact the home if you have any questions or if you would like to arrange to have refreshments in the grounds with you relative/friend, we would be more than happy to facilitate this.
