Don’t managers know how important it is to have proper contact?
SARAH Jackson’s mother Mary went into a Bupa care home in July – and that was the last time she had proper contact with her.
‘I took her to the door, they took her away and that was that,’ she said. ‘I’ve only seen her through a window since then.’ Mrs Jackson has already been told she will not be able to hug or hold hands with her 93-year-old mum, who has dementia, over Christmas.
The best she can hope for is a socially- distant visit through a screen at a ‘visiting pod’. Even then, the home in Stowmarket, Suffolk, will not have capacity for every resident to receive a visit.
Mrs Jackson said: ‘They still haven’t got the lateral flow tests yet but have told us that even when they do implement visitor testing, we won’t have physical contact.
‘Mum just wants to hug me and come close. The carers in the home have been amazing, and say they don’t understand why we aren’t allowed in. But the senior management at big care homes including Bupa seem unable to deal with it and realise how important visiting is.
‘It should be their priority to get visitors in. I don’t understand how care staff are allowed to have their normal Christmas with families but we can’t be together.’
But a Bupa spokesman insisted: ‘The Government’s advice clearly states that direct contact should be discouraged and that lateral flow tests are between 50 per cent and 75 per cent effective. That is why we are using them in conjunction with existing infection control measures and asking relatives to temporarily refrain from contact.
‘We’ll continue to review this as guidance changes.’