Legal threat over care home ‘ house arrest’

ACTIVISTS have threatened legal action over the Government’s ‘false imprisonment’ of care home residents.

Current guidance states that residents who leave the home – even just for a walk in the park – must isolate for 14 days on their return.

This means that hundreds of thousands are ‘trapped’ in their homes, unable to participate in the reopening of society as lockdown lifts.

Campaigners are preparing to take the Government to court unless it drops the ‘ barbaric’ requirement which they say is a blatant breach of Human Rights Law.

The group John’s Campaign, which supports people with dementia, sent a pre-action legal letter to the Department of Health and Social Care.

It says the rule ‘creates an unacceptable risk of illegality because it encourages (indeed, requires) care homes to act unlawfully (namely, by falsely imprisoning care home residents and/or depriving residents of their liberty)’.

The Government claims the 14- day rule is needed ‘to manage the risk of residents returning from visits bringing infection into the care home environment’. However, the guidance acknowledges it ‘is likely to mean that many residents will not wish to make a visit out of the home’.

Residents have described feeling like they are ‘under house arrest’ by the guidance – which also prevents them from voting in person in the UK’s local elections on May 6 without having to isolate afterwards.

Julia Jones, co-founder of John’s Campaign, said: ‘The current guidance… reveals a shameful disregard for a group of people who have already lost more than a year from their lives.’

The Daily Mail is campaigning for cruel visiting restrictions on care homes to be lifted so that residents can be reunited with their loved ones.