Winter woollies off as warm weather provides escape route Home visit rules ‘not enough’
the distress of isolation for the most vulnerable residents.”
Retiredtv executive Michael Blakstad, whose wifetricia, 79, suffers from Alzheimer’s said the plans were “too little, too late”.
Mr Blakstad, 80, who has been limited to visits behind a screen in her Hampshire care home, believes it would have saved his wife “from going completely down the hill”.
He revealed: “She’s now in advanced dementia.the manager in the present home is sure that is due to the restrictions of Covid.”
Care homes will have the discretion to allow more than one visitor in some circumstances.
HOW CAN we shake the country out of its current lockdown malaise? Depression, anxiety, idleness are all on the rise and the nation’s health is suffering because of it. I’m not arguing against lockdowns, I’m arguing for smarter and more flexible restrictions that can help restore some semblance of healthy normality, not just to our lives but more importantly to our children’s.
January was an utterly dreadful month. People’s sacrifices and hard work however have paid off and the infection rate has plummeted far quicker than many thought possible. Lockdown worked but it came at an enormous cost. I see the effects every day.
At Doctorcall we run regular health and medical checks, and the deterioration of many patients has been frightening, much of it through a basic lack of activity. Cardiac issues, diabetes, BMI increasing, mental health issues... sitting at home all day with a computer for company is just plain terrible for our health.
This discussion is especially pertinent for children. When I see empty football pitches or tennis courts at the weekend it’s desperately sad.
Anyone with children who regularly participate in grassroots sport will know the joy it brings, not to mention the benefits to their physical and mental health.
Clearly, a child’s education is the most important thing but a maths lesson can’t be conducted outside in the wind and rain – a sports training session can.the authorities can throw every rule they can think of at it, anything is better than what we have now.
For many, the motivation or resources aren’t there for home workouts.there are relentless debates over which settings lead to more transmission but most agree that the risk outdoors is minimal.
Current guidelines state that outdoor exercise should be limited to once a day.tennis courts, outdoor swimming pools and more must remain closed. Has there been a sufficient level of transmission in outdoor pools to outweigh the enormous benefits of having them open?
There are plenty of other examples where having an active lifestyle is being actively discouraged. It is simply not a healthy way to live and there are consequences.
Last week I saw a female solicitor in her 40s who had become progressively unable to walk more than a few yards due to breathlessness over the past six weeks. She had Covid a year ago, which she thought might be related.
She had barely set foot outside her house in months.
It took minutes to establish she had high-output cardiac failure, with an eye-popping high blood pressure I had to repeat to believe it. She was a walking time bomb certain to suffer a catastrophic event within a matter of days without urgent intervention. She is now under the care of a cardiologist, on an array of medication, and symptoms are settling rapidly. The striking thing is how she had been pushed into a sense of fatalistic apathy which seems to be increasingly engulfing the patients we see.
‘There’s a sense of fatalistic apathy that’s engulfing many
patients’
WE NEED to help people get a grip on reality again and start to take charge of and responsibility for their own lives and decisions.
When you have to obey complicated instructions you become confused and switch off your critical processes.
If this can happen to a 48-year-old solicitor, think of the effect on a child.
Outdoor sport not only provides physical exercise but it also helps bring back some normality. It encourages safe socialisation and independent decision-making.
When Boris Johnson outlines the roadmap tomorrow, this has to be one of the priorities.
I understand there is not much room for nuance in a national lockdown but we’ve been dealing with blanket bans for months now. It’s time to start evaluating different aspects of our society on a case-by-case basis. Allowing people, and more importantly our children, to get off the sofa and out exercising in the fresh air is the perfect place to start.