Hope for care home visitors

CARE homes minister Helen Whately last night said she has “more hope and optimism than I’ve felt for many months” about residents finally being reunited with their loved ones.

Speaking exclusively to the Daily Express she revealed more than 19 million standard Covid tests have been dispatched so staff and residents can be regularly and rapidly checked.

Today, a move will be made to make blanket bans on indoor visits to elderly relatives illegal, as revealed by the Daily Express on Monday.

Emergency laws have been drawn up by Parliament’s joint committee on human rights,

Fight

which says the denial of meaningful visits breaches the Human Rights Act.

If passed it would see families given legal status as essential carers, guaranteeing their right to enter homes.

Labour grandee Harriet Harman, chair of the committee, said: “Good practice has been developing to restore visits safely but it needs to be for all care homes, not just some.The right to family life is enshrined in law for every individual.”

The proposal will be presented to Health Secretary Matt Hancock.

Ms Whately said: “The fight isn’t over yet. I know relatives are desperate for normal visiting to restart and I am determined for that to happen as soon as it is safe.”

Despite rapid testing, many providers continue to lock loved ones out in what has become a postcode lottery.

The crisis has denied tens of thousands of families the chance to say goodbye to more than 30,000 residents who have perished from the virus.

The situation is particularly grave for those whose relatives have dementia.

Seven in 10 of the 400,000 care home residents in Britain have the disease.

It means many families will have soon endured an entire year without a meaningful visit to those close to death.

They have spoken of the heartbreak of the continuing block on visits after hopes the vaccine rollout would allow them back in.

Actress Ruthie Henshall, 53, has told this newspaper of the “unbearable pain” of knowing her 87-year-old mother Gloria is dying with dementia but is being banned from seeing her.

She called it a “lump of grief I carry around every day”.

Danny Mortimer, of the NHS Confederation, said the vaccination of many older care home residents is an “amazing achievement”.

He added: “However, we’re still a way off protecting everyone. Unless staff are also protected, the threat remains.”