Don't expect Welsh care homes to be 'open all hours' families warned

A Welsh care leader has warned families not to expect care homes to be “open all hours” as visiting restrictions in the country are eased.

The Welsh government has published care home guidance allowing residents to nominate an ‘essential visitor’ who can still visit them regularly indoors during a COVID-19 outbreak, (as long as the resident or visitor does not have Covid).

A limit of two indoor visitors per resident has been removed and an unlimited number of people can now visit a resident, subject to a risk assessment by the care home.

Visitors no longer need to wear face coverings in a care home’s outdoor areas but visitors must wear face coverings when entering the home. Visitors can remove their face coverings once inside a resident’s room or designated visiting room.

'Nightmare of past 18 months'

Mary Wimbury, the chief executive of Care Forum Wales, which represents care homes, has welcomed the announcement by the Welsh Government as a sign of a “gradual move towards normalisation” but she also warned: “It would be unrealistic to expect care homes to be open all hours at this point”.

“The successful rollout of the vaccine is clearly having a positive impact which is great news after the nightmare of the past 18 months. The safety and wellbeing of residents and staff will always be the number one priority of care homes and that will be their guiding principle."

With requirements remaining for care home visitors to have lateral flow tests and wear PPE to protect vulnerable residents, she said: “The guidance recognises that care homes have practical constraints on how many visitors or how many visits they can accommodate safely”.

“Families will have to appreciate the balance that care homes seek between safety of the home and visiting. Visiting policies will be revised for each setting, taking into account their staffing, layout and other available resources.

We cannot ‘throw caution to the wind’

“It is imperative that we do not throw caution to the wind because Covid-19 has not gone away and we are still in the throes of a third wave of the virus. We must remain vigilant and careful because the so-called Delta variant is clearly more transmissible.”

With many care home residents and staff having had two jabs, she warned: “It is important to remember that the vaccine does not provide 100 per cent protection. According to Professor David John Spiegelhalter, an eminent expert on understanding risk, a vaccinated 80-year-old has the same risk as an unvaccinated 50-year-old, so the risk has not gone away.

“It is therefore important to point out that individual care homes will have to assess the risk, depending on a number of factors before deciding what type and extent of visits can go ahead.

“Care homes are naturally cautious given that new insurance policies explicitly exclude cover for Covid outbreaks and unlike the NHS, care homes do not have a government indemnity over this.”